


Missing In Action

by emma98



Series: Extended Family [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Darcy has a few secrets up her sleeve, Domestic Bliss, F/M, Hydra is a bag of doodoo heads, Kid Fic, Prophecies!, Tony is out of the information loop, a pre-Infinity Wars fic, background Bucky/Nat - Freeform, family fic, friends with benefits done poorly, inspired by beardy Steve, what does Steve do after Wakanda (Darcy. he does Darcy)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-09 23:14:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11679111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emma98/pseuds/emma98
Summary: The last time the world and Tony Stark saw Steve Rogers was in April 2016.  Sam and Bucky now carry the shield in defense of Earth.  But with Thanos on the way, the world needs the original Captain America more than ever.Tony tries to find him and finds so much more than he bargained for, namely a nearly two year old that calls Steve 'Daddy'.





	1. Steve Rogers, Where Are You?

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!

**Missing in Action**

**Chapter One: Steve Rogers, Where Are You?**

 

* * *

 

"Breaking news today, half of the Avengers are wanted by the law.  This morning it was reported that Sam Wilson, also known as the Falcon, Clint Barton, also known as Hawkeye, and Wanda Maximoff, the internationally wanted enhanced human, as well as an unknown man that had been taken into custody with the Avengers have escaped an undisclosed prison facility.  The following statement was released by United States Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross..."

 

* * *

 

"Avengers, where are you?  Today, at MIT, a rogue science experiment funded by Tony Stark nearly took Iron Man out.  Although the previously imprisoned Avengers have been wanted fugitives for three months, there was no sign of Tony Stark's former team, and most importantly, no sign of Captain America."

 

* * *

 

"You are not imagining this footage viewers, that is the iconic shield of Captain America at today's violent and disturbing rally that had started out as an Alt-Right showing at Capitol Hill and was quickly revealed as a Hydra attempt at terrorism.  But that's not Steve Rogers wielding the shield, that's Sam Wilson, the Falcon, donning a new red, white and blue uniform and of course, the iconic shield.  Steve Rogers, is still nowhere to be found and has not been seen since the Berlin skirmish of 2016."

 

* * *

 

 

"Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross has been placed under arrest for accusations of treason.  An independent investigation by the UN was revealed late last night, and the disgraced Ross was brought into custody almost immediately after by War Machine and Iron Man.  We will go to Katherine Dobson at the White House in a moment as the President prepares to speak on this matter.  In other related news, all previous charges against half of the Avengers team have been dropped, including all charges against Steve Rogers, perhaps now, he will come out of hiding."

 

* * *

 

"James Buchanan Barnes, also known as the Winter Soldier, has officially been deemed innocent in the eyes of the United Nations, and at least one hundred governments have offered him amnesty in a stunning effort made by Wakandan barristers in the past nine months.  The official Wakandan ambassador to the United States has said publicly that she is not aware of Sergeant Barnes' current whereabouts, but since the turbulent events in Wakanda of earlier this year, he has not been present.  Sam Wilson, tweeted the following "1.  Dammit.  and 2.  Oh well, guess it was about time. #freeborkyburns".

And of course, Steve Rogers could not be reached for comment."

 

* * *

 

"It has been eighteen months since the world last saw Steve Rogers in the surveillance footage of the Avengers skirmish in Berlin.  We mention this today, because take a look at this footage and you will see both Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes handling the iconic shield at the site of what might have been a minor alien attack.  The world wants to know, where is Steve Rogers?  Is he missing in action?  Is he even alive?  Captain America, the world would welcome you back."

 

* * *

 

"The Twitter account RogueNASA has changed the world today, sending out an eight part tweet detailing what the world's governments had hoped to keep secret.  A battalion of Alien forces is making their way to Earth and will arrive in two months time.  We are to believe that their intentions are not friendly ones."

 

The news anchor, who had seen wars, genocides, and natural disasters and reported them with aplomb and grace now took pause, looking panicked and desperate. 

 

"It is estimated that with the amount of forces heading our way, it is a mass level extinction event."

 

Another pause and the anchor looked at the camera, her face pleading, "There is a call for the Avengers to assemble and work alongside the X-men, the Fantastic Four, and the United Nations.  The Avengers, however have remained disjointed for the past two years since the Sokovian Accords went into effect.  Tony Stark was present alongside James Rhodes.  But like all the minor disasters of the past two years since the Berlin skirmish between the factions of the Avengers, Steven Rogers was missing."

 

The pause was electric this time, and millions of viewers were glued to their screens.

 

"Captain, please.  Help us."

 

* * *

 

**Granville Ohio, 2018**

 

Tony never ever wanted to use the phone he was currently staring at.  Sure, he could have reached out to any of Steve's former teammates and gotten them to get in touch with Steve.  He still saw Sam quite frequently, at least once a month, barring any overzealous super villains.  He was thankful that he hadn't run into Bucky Barnes in the field.  While the event in Siberia had been over two years ago now, and Tony knew that the man was saving lives with the shield Tony had given over to Sam with a quiet apology, it didn't mean he wanted to see his face.

 

The avoidance and silence between the two men seemed to be working.

 

But Tony knew it couldn't last forever. 

 

He had been working diligently with the world's brightest, trying to figure out what was heading towards them, gobbling up entire solar systems in its path.  If anything was an all hands on deck situation, this was it. 

 

It's not that Tony didn't know where Steve was.  He knew exactly where Steve was.  And while Tony had found himself in tight jams in the past two and a half years, he never once called Steve.  Because Steve would have come and helped, and that would have annoyed Tony to no end.

 

"Call him," Pepper urged from her place on the bed. 

 

"I thought you were asleep," Tony said with surprising softness. 

 

"Like anyone could sleep with you thinking so loud," Pepper gave him a soft smile.  Their reconciliation had come almost two years ago, when Pepper had come to him with a dossier full of secrets about Thaddeus Ross.  They worked together to free Tony and the acords from Ross's hands. 

 

Tony liked to think that he'd learned his lesson.  He didn't take Pepper for granted one small bit anymore.  The woman who had (possibly foolishly) agreed to marry him came first.  And in order to stop this world from disintegrating, and thereby to stop Pepper from disintegrating, Tony would have to get everyone on board.  Including, Steve Rogers.

 

He dialed the only number programmed into the terribly outdated cellphone and held it up to his ear.  It rang four times.

 

"Tony," came the muffled answer. 

 

"Capsicle.  Seen any good news lately?" Tony asked glibly.

 

"I'll be in.  Give me---give me a few days to say goodbye."

 

"I'm, I'm actually in town," Tony looked around the hotel room.  "The only hotel in town is a Holiday Inn Express.  Kind of refreshing, actually.  The showers really are pretty amazing."

 

"You're in Ohio?" Steve asked.  The phone became muffled and Tony could hear Steve talking barely, they were just soft murmurs to someone else.  He sighed when he came back and said, "Okay, Tony.  If you already have the address, come on over in about two hours."

 

Someone said something in the background of where Steve was.  The former Captain America chuckled before amending,

 

"Stop at the Dunkin Donuts and bring munchkins.  Chocolate and jelly filled only, please."

 

* * *

 

 

When Tony pulled up in a Masarati, he had the good grace to realize he was incredibly out of place. Granville, Ohio wasn't exactly a thriving metropolis.  It might have seen better days, but since the factories closed down in the late 80's, it had been one of those hard luck, middle American towns that was just sort of getting by.  Most people drove an hour to work elsewhere, but came back every day to the not quite a city, not quite a nothing little town with their neat, clean blocks full of very old country houses that had been renovated time and time again over the decades. 

 

"Elmer Street," Tony chuckled.  "You couldn't make this shit up if you tried."

 

The house that Steve was staying in was probably once an old gray stone farm house back in the 1800's.  The stone was still there, but the plain square shape it must have been at one point had been altered with additions.  One was a little sun room/patio around back. The front of the house had a big, wide front porch that looked relatively new, the wood painted a brilliant white.  The wicker furniture on the front was clean but was far from pristine.  There were definite indentations in the cushions from people sitting on it multiple times. 

 

There were wooden storage units up against the wall of the house, camouflaged as additional seats, with additional cushions stacked on top.  Tony itched to look inside, to see what Steve had been up to these past two and a half years.  He did see a bag of salt that would be used to melt ice on the driveway, and a snow shovel that had probably seen little use during the unusually mild winter. 

 

On the opposite end of the porch from the seating area was a little work bench, presumably used for gardening and various woodworking.  There were approximately ten flower boxes stacked up on the table, looking like they were freshly sanded and just in need of a fresh coat of paint. 

 

Tony imagined that old man Rogers probably went out there and puttered around.  Maybe he'd paint the boxes that cornflower blue that would match the ornamental shutters around the windows of the house and then fill the boxes with red and white peonies and put them with a wry wink to the neighborhood who likely didn't know that the man who had lived at the house for two and a half years was Captain America.

 

The letter box looked about as old as the house itself, but Tony's eye recognized where the small surveillance camera was.  It looked similar to something Natasha had used in the past and Tony realized that the redhead had been in contact with Steve, even though she'd never let on.  The number on the front read 419 and the surname underneath read Lewis.

 

Tony blinked at that.  He'd met a Lewis once.  Steve had too.  Tony had done his darndest to get the two of them hooked up, truth be told.  They had both demurred.  The name must have struck a chord with Steve and he was now using it as an alias.

 

The only reason Tony knew where Steve lived, was because a few months after the Raft breakout, he commandeered global traffic cameras to follow Sam Wilson here.  The man who wielded the shield had had an easy time at it, protecting peaceful protesters in Philadelphia before he got a call and took off, driving into the night and stopping at only one twenty-four hour Target before arriving at this house.

 

Tony saw a glimpse of Steve as he opened the door from the camera at the stop light at the end of the block, and that had been enough.  He didn't need to see anymore and he didn't want to invade the man's privacy.

 

Steve Rogers was retired.  Only now, it was time to come out of retirement.  So that Earth would still be around in a few months so that Steve could enjoy that porch come summer time and look at his boxes full of peonies under his window sills.

 

Tony rang the doorbell and snorted when Lionel Ritchie's  _ Hello _ began playing ding dong style. 

 

"HOLD ON!" Steve hollered from inside, sounding harried and annoyed.

 

"What in the hell, man," Tony shook his head in amusement.

 

The front door was ripped open and Steve stood there, looking a little red in his bearded face and not quite ready for guests.  For one he was covered in what Tony hoped was chocolate pudding. 

 

And, there was also the curious matter of the toddler hanging off of his back.  Blond haired, blue eyed and chubby as the dickens.  He was clinging to Steve's t-shirt with what Tony assumed was super strength and the child was also covered in chocolate pudding (again, Tony hoped).

 

" _ Well _ \---" Tony blinked in astonishment.  He shook his head back and forth, as if to clear the vision in front of him.  Because if he wasn’t mistaken, Steve Rogers had a mini-me attached to him at the moment.  “Huh?”

 

"Sorry, I didn't mean to shout, it's just, I'm having a morning," Steve sighed.  He wiggled his shoulder and the child hanging off of Steve giggled.  "Someone decided that because his mom isn't here, he gets to go a little crazy.  Michael, say hi to our friend."

 

"Hi!" the little boy chirped. "Daddy! Milky?"

 

Tony had suspected the kid was Steve’s.  It was either Steve Rogers’ spawn or it was his miniature clone.  The kid looked like a serumed version of Steve as a toddler.  The long, straight nose, the sandy blonde duck fuzz that passed as hair was cut in the same style, and stood straight up from their heads in those trendy spikes Steve had grown so fond of after waking up from the ice.  

 

"Sure, pal.  Tony, c'mon, come in," Steve gestured.  "It's chilly out."

 

Tony could only gape at Steve in confusion, like there was some disconnect between what he was seeing with his own two eyes and what his brain was willing to digest.  Steve Rogers was leading him into a warm, cheerfully decorated, but slightly disheveled house.  There was a shoe rack by the door, and lined up on the top row were small, feminine shoes, sneakers mostly, a couple of multicolored converses and one pair of  very seldom used high heels that looked like a knockoff of something Pepper would wear.  The bottom row were obviously a combination of Steve's shoes (sneakers that looked like they were about to fall apart and one pair of brightly shined and seemingly never worn dress shoes) and much, much smaller shoes (sneakers that had Mickey Mouse on them and that presumably lit up and an identical pair of shiny dress shoes looking like they had never been worn). 

 

They walked through the hallway, the coat rack on the wall cluttered with all manners of sweatshirts, jackets, heavy coats and winter finery.  Then there was a banquet immediately next to the coat rack, and it had a basket that was overfull of coupon books, mail order catalogues and other various junk mail.  Tony looked down to catch a name on the Save-More coupon book and saw "The Lewis Family or Current Resident".

 

They passed an entrance way to a large dining room, full of light bouncing off of butter yellow painted walls.  The walnut dining table was large, and had a homey little bouquet in the center of it made up of artificial sunflowers, and it had tiny toys, little green army guys spersed throughout the arrangement.  The rest of the table might have once been clean, but it was currently covered in cereal boxes, a nearly drunk gallon of 2% milk, two half eaten bananas and what Tony was assuming was the start of an explosive experiment with chocolate pudding. 

 

Next to the head of the table was a high chair, set at a lower height so that the toddler would have been level with Steve's line of sight. 

 

"Michael Michael Motorcycle, do you want more breakfast or do you wanna get cleaned up?" Steve wondered as they paused at the entrance to the dining room.

 

"Milky, Daddy," Michael reminded him patiently.

 

"Oh yeah, that's right, c'mon, I gotta get your sippy," Steve nodded as he went away from the dining room and carried his son on his back effortlessly, the little boy's body swinging with every step.

 

Tony just stood there for a moment, absolutely gobsmacked.  Steve Rogers had just said  _ sippy _ , like it was a thing that he knew about.   Like it was a real thing that was normal and not strange at all.  

 

This was like some kind of twilight zone.  Tony remembered that conversation he had with Steve after Ultron.   _ Family.  A nice quiet life. _  It wasn't what Steve had wanted then.  Or at least, that's what he had said. 

 

"CHEESERS!" the baby boy screamed.

 

Tony winced at the volume the boy had achieved.  He supposed it wasn’t quite a _quiet_ life after all.

 

"Michael, you're not getting cheesers for second breakfast.  Your ma will will find out and then Daddy'll be in trouble, is that what you want?" Steve asked, his voice raising with gentle authority.

 

"YES!" Michael said insistently.  "I want dat!  N’ Cheesers!"

 

Tony finally began walking again, joining the father and the son in the kitchen.  The little boy was pointing at something on the top of the fridge while Steve rinsed out a sippy cup with Sam Wilson on it, wings, shield and red white and blue outfit and everything.  Michael was pointing at a very large container of puffed orange cheese curls from his place on the counter that Steve had set him on. 

 

"Well I don't want your ma to be mad at me, so you're not having cheesers," Steve reasoned.  "You can have REAL cheese though if you want it."

 

"Uhhhhhhhh," Michael thought about it intensely.  His little body slumped in defeat and he shrugged, "Mickey chee."

 

Steve gave a smug little smile of victory to Tony before shaking the excess water out of the sippy cup and going back to the really large stainless steel fridge.  Tony blinked at the size of the thing, but then remembered how much food Steve could put away with his advanced metabolism.  They always got a lot of takeout in Manhattan when Steve was around, and when they had all moved to upstate New York, the cafeteria had ordered meat by the herd.

 

The industrial sized fridge that Steve was peering into now was stocked to the gills.  He pulled out another gallon of 2% milk and cracked it open, filling the sippy cup all the way up to the brim, before placing it back on the shelf with the other five gallons of milk. He opened one of the drawers and began digging around in what looked to be an entire cheese monger's wares.  Finally he pulled out one of the plastic bags that had Mickey Mouse on the front, containing cheese that was cut into the shape of  iconic Disney cartoon.

 

"Can I get you anything, Tony?" Steve wondered. 

 

"Side of beef?" Tony cracked, staring into the fridge in wonder.  It was busting to the gill with fresh produce, drinks, pudding cups, every condiment known to man, and a bunch of tupperware containers full of mystery items.

 

"My wife likes to keep this stocked, just in case of a zombie apocalypse," Steve huffed out a chuckle.  “Also, because we both hate grocery shopping, so when we do it, we try to make it last for as long as possible.”

 

“How long will that last you?” Tony gestured to the fridge with a tilt of his chin.

 

“About a week,” Steve grinned.  He ruffled the blond duck fuzz on top of his son’s head and smiled with actual gut busting pride that gave Tony goosebumps on his forearms.  “My boy inherited the metabolism, and my wife has some lingering pregnancy related metabolism stuff too.”

 

"Wife," Tony nodded as Steve put some Mickey cheeses into a little bowl for his son, who was squirming on the counter, trying to get into a standing position, no doubt wanting to jump to the top of the fridge and get the cheesers instead of the cheese.

 

Tony had no doubt the little monkey might be able to have accomplished it.  He leapt off the counter and went five feet up and over and would have gotten to his preferred snack had Steve not just snatched him by the back of his pants right out of the air.  He put the toddler back on the counter and handed him the milk and cheese. 

 

"Sorry, I completely forgot to introduce you guys," Steve looked a little disturbed.  He ruffled the blond locks on top of his son's head once more and smiled.  "This is Michael.  He's a little under two years old.  And he likes to jump."

 

"HI!" Michael said around a healthy mouthful of cheese, waving both hands in the air excitedly, looking friendly and bright, something that wasn’t quite reminiscent of Steve, so Tony gathered it came from  _ the wife _ .

 

"Michael, this is an old friend of your dad's, his name is Tony," Steve smiled at his boy.  "Can you say Tony?"

 

"Toners," Michael nodded.

 

"Close enough," Steve gave him a pat on the head.  He looked back to Tony and smiled.   And then looked utterly confused and lost at Tony's shocked bewilderment.  "Tony?  Did---did you not know about---"

 

"About the fact that you're married and have a kid and are the perfect dad?  No, no, no, no one ever told me that," Tony gaped at him like a fish.  “Makes sense now, that none of your old team was willing to come get you for the big fight.”

 

"Well, I'll be damned.  I thought that Thor woulda told you last year," Steve shook his head in astonishment.

 

"Thor knows about this?" Tony shook his head in amazement. 

 

"Well, yeah," Steve nodded.  "You know, he's the Godfather of Michael..."

 

"Not Barnes?" Tony furrowed his brow.  "Or Wilson?"

 

"It was his ma's choice," Steve explained. He smiled and shrugged, clearly not perturbed.   "Bucky was still in cryo when Michael was born and Thor---well it’s a long story."

 

"Yeah, apparently a really long story," Tony scoffed. 

 

"I'm sorry Tony, I thought you would have known.  I mean, the security camera at the stop light.  I bought this house for a reason, so you'd be able to check in if you wanted," Steve revealed with a confused smile.  "Natasha said---"

 

"You've been in touch with Natasha?  She knows about---that," Tony pointed to the kid, who had demolished the cheese and was shaking an empty sippy cup in Steve's face.

 

"Micah Micah Mota Cyca!" the toddler told him patiently.

 

"Right, him," Tony couldn't help but smile.  The kid was seriously adorable.

 

"Sorry, Tony, I just---I assumed you knew and just, didn't care," Steve shrugged.  He went and filled up Michael's sippy cup full of milk again and got more cheese for the boy.  "So---where to start?"

 

"Well, how about for starters, who the hell did you marry?  Do you know that you knocked her up when we were trying to ki---"

 

"Hey," Steve said softly and shook his head, his eyes sliding to his child.

 

"M-U-R-D-E-R each other in Siberia?" Tony quickly covered, spelling it out.  "How in the hell does no one realize you're YOU here?  And seriously, what in the he---"

 

"Okay, okay," Steve cut in, his eyes sliding to his kid again.  "Hey Michael Michael Motorcycle, do you want to go and watch videos on your pad?"

 

The child's sparkling blue eyes got very very large in his astonishment.  Apparently, that's not something they did usually.  Because the kid immediately began to try and wheedle more from his father.

 

"And cheesers and loll a pop!" Michael nodded.

 

"Videos, and---and one bowl of cheesers," Steve sighed.  Michael immediately jumped to his feet on the counter top, showing agility and grace that normal toddlers didn't quite have and began to do a silly dance that was comprised of his hips moving back and forth jerkily.  "Your ma is gonna scold me something proper when she gets back."

 

"And his ma is who now?" Tony asked, getting a little impatient as Steve began to fill his son's snack bowl once more. 

 

"Dah see Dah see Dah see," Michael cooed.  "Seat heart Dah see Seat heart."

 

"I don't speak munchkin," Tony told Michael bluntly.

 

"Darcy Lewis," Steve handed his son his cheese curls, smacked a kiss on his forehead and put him on the floor, so that he could run into the living room and watch educational videos on his parental controlled ipad.  Steve looked at Tony's confused expression.  "You met her once."

* * *

 


	2. Darcy Lewis, Who Are You?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the chapter titles have a theme to them. Where, Who, What, When and How. And here is Who? Heh. Cause I like to try and be clever from time to time...

**Chapter Two: Darcy Lewis, Who Are You?**

* * *

 

**_April 2016, Upstate New York Avengers Facility_ **

 

"Can you---can you cancel the mission to Lagos?"

 

Steve looked up in concern at the request.  Darcy Lewis was standing in the doorway to his office, looking not at all like her usual self.  Not in her looks, because they were just as they ever were. Darcy was beautiful, of course.  But now she was also pale, and serious looking.  Her hands were formed into tight little fists at her side and big eyes the color of the sea were darting here, there and everywhere but at Steve.

 

"Are you alright?" Steve asked automatically.  He had never seen her look so  _ off _ .  And he had seen quite a lot of her in the last year and a half.  Her feelings were bleeding over into his feelings just barely, something that hadn’t happened in quite some time.

 

"I'm okay, well, yeah, I'm okay," Darcy nodded.  She saw that Steve was visibly looking just as she felt: distracted, panicked, worried.  She forced the feeling down to just herself, just as Natasha had trained her to do, instead looking just past Steve's gaze to the map with the push pins sticking out of it.  She knew what those push pins stood for, she had helped to devise the scheme of them after all.  

 

She wanted to be able to thank him for all he had done for her.   

 

The map held red for places Bucky Barnes had been in the last two years.  Blue for the places he was suspected to visit.  White for the places they'd tried to find him at that were a no-go.  The white outnumbered all of the other colors.  

 

Steve stood to try and get her to look him in the eye.  This wasn't like Darcy at all.  

 

He and Darcy had an unconventional relationship.  Although Sam and Natasha both had tried to convince Steve that it was an entirely conventional relationship according to twenty-first century standards.

 

For the last eighteen months, ever since the ground had been broken on the New Avenger's facility, Darcy Lewis and Steve Rogers had fallen into a very satisfying friends with very satisfying benefits kind of relationship.  They expected nothing of each other but honesty about where they were at and what they were feeling.  That had been Darcy's only rule before pulling Steve into her bed all that time ago.  

 

The problem was that Steve had been breaking that rule pretty terribly since the moment they started it.  He hadn’t been honest with her at all.  He wanted so much more than what he was currently being generously gifted with.  Steve had been at war with himself since that first time.  He wanted more of Darcy.  He wanted ALL of Darcy.  But with his life as it was, he could offer her nothing more than the occasional weekend of snuggling and sex when he was on base, and the three times a week text messages when he was out on a mission.  

 

Not to mention just how dangerous it would make the innocent woman's life should he try to move on the things he actually wanted with her.  Those things included but were not limited to living together, calling her his girlfriend in public and to the nosy busy bodies that they called friends, and on his weak days, he imagined asking her to make an honest man out of him.

 

But she had seemed content with their current situation as well, so Steve figured it just best to take what she was willing to offer and not push for more should he lose it all.

 

"I can't cancel the mission, Darcy---are you sure that you’re alright?" Steve questioned.

 

"I think so," she whispered, completely unlike the brash, brazen, outspoken woman that Steve had kissed senseless two days ago.  "Hey, so, when I was in New York City yesterday, I caught a glimpse of something on Pepper Potts' desk and I'm really afraid it's that whole UN situation---"

 

Steve blinked at the very abrupt change in conversation but tried to follow along.

 

"I checked the chatter feed and I'm thinking that the Secretary of the Asshole State  is trying to make his play," Darcy whispered, looking around warily.  They were safe in the facility, but this seemed to be the kind of topic that was worthy of the utmost kind of secrecy.  "Just---you can't cancel the mission?  I mean, Sam and Nat could probably handle it, maybe?"

 

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," Steve said genuinely.  

 

"No---no, I get it," Darcy nodded.  "I gotta go."

 

* * *

 

**_2018, Granville, Ohio_ **

 

"You know what happened then," Steve sighed.  "Darcy had just figured out that she might be pregnant, and she didn't know how to tell me or break it to me or whatever.  She was afraid I'd be upset."

 

Tony and Steve both looked into the open living room, where Michael was stuffing his face full of cheesers and cereal combined, as he watched some blissed out person opening up children's toys on youtube.  Michael began repeating the commentary from the video in his unique baby talk and Steve couldn't help the big smile slowly creeping across his face.

 

"We had a lot of crossed wires then," Steve admitted.  "Didn't know how important we were to each other."

 

"I hear you have to talk that stuff out," Tony smirked knowingly.  

 

"Yeah?  You ever learn to do that?" Steve wondered, knowing the answer.  Unlike Tony, Steve had never hesitated to ask Sam and Natasha and the rest of his contacts with the Avengers about how Tony was doing.  And of course, he had his wife, who knew how _Pepper_ was doing.

 

"I'm a constant work in progress," Tony shrugged.  "Life long learner, applying himself every day."

 

"Good.  Me too," Steve chuckled a little.  

 

"DADDY!" Michael shouted suddenly.  He was standing on a dining room chair and dancing around in place, his little hands going to his crotch as he whimpered.  "Pee pee, Daddy.  Owie!"

 

"Oh shit," Steve breathed as he ran for it, rushing to the table and grabbing Michael before tearing through the house back towards the kitchen.  "Michael, you can't wait so long buddy, when you feel you gotta tinkle, you should go try, not wait till you're dancing, pal."

 

Michael only cried in response, wailing loudly until Steve got him to the back bathroom and got him on top of the training potty.  Tony's eyes popped out of his head and he fidgeted uncomfortably as the sound of tinkling echoed from the back bathroom and the toddler let out a happy, relieved sigh.

 

"Tank you Daddy tank you," Michael said in relief.

 

"No problem, Michael Michael Motorcycle," Steve sounded angelic in his pride and love and if Tony hadn't of gone to his weekly therapy session two days ago, he might have been close to rolling his eyes.  "Good job buddy."

 

"I gotta poop!" Michael yelled and then immediately whined.

 

"Oh hell no," Tony muttered before making a run for it, intent on puttering around on the porch instead of hearing the kid take a dump while Steve cheered him on.

 

Robot children and spider kidlets were clearly superior.  For the bodily functions alone.

 

* * *

 

 

**_May 2016, Wakanda_ **

 

Natasha had shown up at the most convenient time, just after Bucky had been placed back in cryofreeze.  She had stared at the frozen man for an uncomfortable amount of time, but refused to explain to Steve why.  

 

"We have to get them off the raft," Natasha said bluntly when she had finished her staring at Bucky.  "Then you need to go and find Darcy."

 

"What?  Darcy?" Steve repeated.  "Nat, she's not interested anymore, I'm pretty sure.  She hasn't answered my texts or phone calls for nearly a month."

 

"Don't be an idiot, Rogers," Natasha sighed.  "I hid her before I came to London for Peggy's funeral."

 

"You hid her?" Steve repeated, feeling very much like this was going to be one of those mysterious Black Widow conversations where he essentially just repeated everything she said, but in the form of a question.  "What do you mean you hid her?"

 

"Thor asked me to protect her always," Natasha shrugged.  "He's actually with her now, just touched down on Earth eight hours ago with Foster.  We'll have him do some sort of distraction so we can get on the Raft---"

 

"Is she alright?" Steve questioned.  "She was---she was OFF before Lagos."

 

"She's fine," Natasha promised, her answer curt and short.  She leveled an eyebrow at Steve and said, "When you see her again, I need you to promise me to be honest with her, please.  None of this just friends with benefits shit show anymore.  Tell her the truth about how you feel.  Please?"

 

"I can do that," Steve was suddenly serious.  He looked back to Bucky in cryofreeze, realizing all his best friend had either given up or had taken from him.  It seemed selfish of Steve to not honor those sacrifices by doing what was right and what was good.  

 

* * *

 

It had been easier than he had thought it would be, to be certain.  

 

Darcy had answered the door on Elmer Street, in Granville, Ohio poking her head out of the crack and looking at Steve in surprise less than seven hours after the Raft break in.  She'd looked shocked to see him standing on the other side, dressed in low visibility civilian clothing, sunglasses and a baseball cap.  He pulled the sunglasses off immediately and gave her a relieved smile.  Because even though he could only see her face, he knew she was healthy and whole and right in front of him.

 

Whenever he'd been in close proximity of her before, his spirits would automatically lift.  It was all part of that Darcy magic, he liked to say.  And she would also always correct him that the mysterious blue goop had to take responsibility for her being a walking talking antidepressant.  

 

"Before you say anything," he held up his hands as her mouth opened to stutter out a greeting.  "I just---I need to tell you something."

 

Darcy swallowed, obviously trying to steel herself before she gave a small nod of acknowledgement.  Steve took in a deep breath and felt an itch in his palms.  During their time as friends with really, truly spectacular benefits, one of his favorite things to do would be to walk up to her in private, greeting and pulling her in with his hands on her hips until their bodies were flush against one another.  He would have always spent an inordinate amount of time then staring down at her in wonder, unable to fathom why she would be willing to give so much of herself when she was getting so little in return.  After she'd had her fill of him staring at her, she'd push up onto the tips of her toes and kiss him soft and slow on the mouth, smiling into it.

 

Steve wanted that more than anything at the moment.

 

"I should have listened to you and cancelled the Lagos mission," Steve blurted out.  "I should have paid more attention to the Accord chatter reports you brought me.  I should have done so many things sweetheart, but most importantly, I should have told you after that first weekend with you, the first time you'd let an idiot like me touch you and kiss you and make love to you, I should have told you that I wanted to be so much more than your friend."

 

"Steve---"

 

"NO, please," Steve shook his head.  "Fell way more than halfway in love with you that second weekend when you drank your damned beer through a straw and ate a whole pizza and then wouldn't get on top of me because of your food baby."

 

"Oh god."

 

"I love you," Steve blurted out in earnest before she could say anymore.  "And when you asked me to cancel Lagos, I didn't realize that I should have.  But I'm going to do what I should now.  I'm done.  I'm through with it.  The world can go on turning without Captain America, because from here on out, I'm just Steve.  And the only thing I want to do is LOVE you and dedicate every minute into making sure you know it and feel it and, please sweetheart, please say you'll let me."

 

"Yeah, okay," Darcy nodded.  The skies turned darker in the span of a heartbeat and she could hear thunder in the distance.  "Shit, you gotta get out of here, Steve."

 

"What?  No," Steve laughed, his grin threatening to break his face.  She'd said YES.  She was truly crazy if she thought he was going anywhere without her ever again. 

 

"Thor is coming back, and---and he's not happy with you at the moment," Darcy said bluntly.  "So get out of here, and come back in a week or so when he's gone."

 

"Hell no, sweetheart, sorry," Steve didn't sound sorry one bit.  "Thor can get his punches in for me not coming to my senses sooner.  But I'm not leaving without a proper kiss.  And I'm---I'm just not leaving you again.  Ever."

 

Lightning announced Thor's arrival as he touched down elegantly in the front yard.  Darcy rolled her eyes and Steve smiled at his friend.  

 

"Thanks for the distraction earlier, pal," Steve smiled at the Asgardian, who didn’t return the greeting or the friendly expression.  As a matter of fact, Thor looked downright  _ pissed _ .  "Everyone else sends their thanks as---"

 

Steve didn't get to finish his sentence, because Mjolnir whipped towards his midsection.  His eyes widened in a panic as he realized that if the hammer knocked into him, he'd fly back into the door Darcy was hidden behind, doing untold damage to the house and to the woman he'd just declared his love for.  Steve didn't have a moment to think about it.  He put his hands up and caught the hammer, flipping it quickly so he grabbed onto the handle.

 

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Steve demanded, gripping Mjolnir tight in his fist.  "You coulda hurt Darcy, you big goon!"

 

"I could have hurt Darcy?" Thor bellowed at him, stalking across the lawn and up the rickety porch that Steve was standing on.  

 

Darcy made an annoyed noise and retreated into the house.  Steve held up the hammer, ready to use it against its owner should he need to defend himself, but Thor didn't strike him, he simply reached out and grabbed Steve by the collar of his jacket and hauled him into the house.  Steve didn't appreciate feeling like a trapped puppy that had done wrong, but he didn't want to use Thor's weapon against him unless he absolutely needed to.   So they stood there, Steve holding the hammer and Thor holding Steve, glaring down at him.

 

"You have disrespected those who I have claimed as kin," Thor rumbled and the thunder rumbled with him.  

 

"I've apologized and begged for forgiveness and she's given it," Steve insisted hotly, his attitude bristling just as it would have when he was a tiny little fighting thing in Brooklyn back in the day.  "I'm gonna do it right now, gonna court her and ask her to marry me and everything, so just mind your own damned business, Thor.  Last I checked, you needed to keep your own relations with Foster a little healthier."

 

"Steve," Darcy sighed.  Thor and Jane were currently experiencing long distance relationship drama, but you NEVER should bring it up in an argument.  She tried in vain to keep her pulse and blush under control at Steve's stated intentions.  

 

She suddenly very much wanted him to marry her.

 

"You will make it right?" Thor demanded, looking at Steve warily.

 

"Course I will," Steve insisted.  "I'm through with everything else, no more shield.  No more calls to assemble.  It's time to start living life the right way.  With Darcy."

 

"I'm glad to hear it," Thor said softly, dropping his hold on Steve.  He snatched Mjolnir out of Steve's grasp and flipped it in his hands.  "I shall ask Natasha to bring one of your non-religious priests at first light tomorrow and you shall enter the bonds of matrimony with the Lady Darcy before I depart."

 

"Wait, what?" Steve blinked up at the man.

 

"THOR!" Darcy scolded.  "You are not using MewMew as a metaphorical shotgun in the shotgun wedding."

 

"You will wed my lightning sister or you will suffer the consequences," Thor pointed the hammer at Steve in warning, using it very much like a metaphorical shotgun despite Darcy's warnings not to.  

 

"The lady gets a say in it, pal," Steve huffed out, his cheeks going pink.  Although the idea of wedding Darcy, of being forever hers certainly had its appeal.

 

"Not when her honor and a babe are at stake," Thor ground out.  "I will not see her or the child she carries disrespected as such."

 

Steve went a little slack jawed and turned slowly to get a good look at Darcy.  She was beautiful as the last time he saw her, but this time, instead of that pale sort of shakiness, she was blushing with anger, and her skin was glowing.  His eyes did a quick dart up and down her body, and he felt his heart began to hammer out of his chest, feeling like he was on the verge of an asthma attack and a heart palpitation all at once.

 

She was dressed in those skin tight galaxy leggings he loved so much, the stretchy material molded to the soft, full legs he was so fond of.  Her upper body was covered in a bright blue top of his accidental creation.  It had been a t-shirt meant to fit him, with the Avenger's logo on it along with the message ' _ Avenger's Pie Eating Contest 2015 _ '.  Steve had loved having her wear it on their lazy days in bed, that and nothing much else.  Except he'd done the laundry one day and somehow the shirt had wound up being cut in half with shredded sleeves.  

 

Darcy had still always worn it, declaring it her favorite article of clothing.  

 

And she was wearing it now, the shirt hanging off one shoulder, but since it was so short, it let her belly on full display, tightly encased in the brilliant, beautiful colors of the galaxy that were printed on the leggings.  Darcy had always had a softness and plushness that Steve greatly appreciated.  He loved that she was soft where other people were hard and tough.  And Darcy had always been confident in her beauty, even if she was more rounded than any other woman that crossed their path.   The belly she was sporting was not the normal soft roundedness of her body.  

 

It was the high, proud belly of a woman who was about five months pregnant.  

 

Steve didn't need to do the math.  He didn't even think about the math involved.  He simply walked to her and fell to his knees in front of her, his hands finally palming at her hips as he stared up at her, his eyes darting between hers and the swell of a baby.  

 

"Did you know?" he whispered.

 

"I had only just realized what it could be," Darcy answered, knowing what he was asking.  "I was---terrified and didn't know what you'd feel or think or if you'd ask me to---to get rid of him."

 

"God, no," Steve gasped out, his hands gripping her hips.  He bent forward and placed his lips against the swell of her belly reverently.  

 

"I wasn't being rational," Darcy admitted.  "I wasn't thinking clearly.  But then Lagos happened and Natasha told me to hide, so I did.  And Thor came and he knew right away.  And I've been so scared because I just wanted you to know and you weren't here and you were fighting with Stark and I didn't know if you would come back---"

 

"I'm never leaving you, I'll never leave you," Steve promised.  And he meant it.  He hadn't been planning to leave her before he knew she was carrying his child.  He refused to consider the possibility now.  

 

"And you didn't know how I felt about you, I didn't tell you," Darcy sniffed as Steve scrambled to his feet and wrapped her up in his arms.  "I thought you wouldn't feel the same."

 

"Do you love me?" Steve wondered.

 

"For a little bit now," Darcy managed to regain a little of her sarcasm back.  “Just since that second weekend, probably.  When you spent five whole minutes kissing the food baby.  I’ve loved you since then but was just---stupid and scared.”

 

"Doesn’t matter how stupid or scared we were before.  Now we can make it right.  Now we know that we feel the same," Steve promised her.  He was very serious and hopeful when he asked quietly, "Will you marry me, Darcy?"

 

"Yes," Darcy nodded against his chest.  She wasn't about to play coy or try to hide her intentions.  She loved the man who was holding her, she was carrying his child.  They'd wasted a lot of time not being clear with each other about what they wanted, apparently, and if things had gone really terribly wrong in Berlin or Siberia or anywhere, then Darcy wouldn't have the man embracing her now.  She wasn't about to hide behind coyness anymore.  "I love you, and I want to marry you."

 

"Excellent, I will get the ceremony performer immediately!" Thor clapped his hands together, all threatening gestures and expressions gone as he happily looked upon the reunited pair's happiness.  

 

"Hold on," Natasha grumbled as she walked in from the kitchen, not surprising any of the other people in her stealthy surprise arrival.  She looked at Steve and asked seriously, "How disappeared do you want to be?"

 

"I'm done with it," Steve promised.  "The shield isn't mine anymore.  I've paid my dues back, Natasha.  I have two jobs in life now, being this lady's devoted husband and being the best father I can be."

 

"Good," Natasha smiled, and it was small and soft and genuine.  "Let me make a few calls."

 

* * *

 

**2018, Granville Ohio**

 

"Michael, buddy, stop climbing up there," Steve warned as the three of them sat on the front porch, Tony tinkering with the doorbell while listening to Steve's story.  

 

Michael was on top of the porch railing, exhibiting perfect balance and poise as he tip-toed across the four inch wooden railing.  He was holding up a little, brightly colored plastic gun that was spitting out big, soapy bubbles, and to Tony's horror and fascination, he was holding it in perfect form, looking like a terrifying tiny soldier who had been trained by a DIFFERENT terrifying not so tiny soldier.  

 

"Micah is Unca Buck Buck," Michael answered back.  "Tip toe tip toe tip toe."

 

"So, where is your wife now?" Tony asked, clearly not wanting to hear the adorable child pretend to be _Uncle_ Bucky all that much.  Sure, the kid was cute, but Tony still wasn't the fondest of Barnes.   "Work?"

 

"Darcy's a stay at home mom, she doesn't work unless she really wants to.  Jane will send her data every once in awhile, and Darcy does some freelance----editing," Steve shrugged.

 

"So, you're the breadwinner?  Pepper said you hadn't touched the trust she'd established for you with the Stark Industries profits," Tony furrowed his brow.  Howard had stashed the money away for decades for Steve, every penny that came from the man's image or the science behind the man was stowed away and had accrued quite a bit of interest over the decades.  But Steve hadn't touched it.

 

"Natasha laundered some of my pension and back pay," Steve shrugged.  He didn't tell Tony that most of that money went right to Sam Wilson and the rest of the rogue Avengers for their operations.  "And I work."

 

"You're Captain Fucking America, how do you work?" Tony demanded.

 

Michael looked down from the place he had climbed to, namely the corner roost of the porch and Steve heaved a heavy sigh as the boy's eyes lit up with naughty intentions.  It was generally agreed upon by Darcy and Steve that the boy couldn't be scolded too badly if his swear words came as a direct result of THEIR swear words.  And now that he was testing his limits as he made his way into his terrible two's, he definitely knew that if  _ Toners _ made a bad word, then  _ he _ could make a bad word.

 

"Don't do it, Mister," Steve warned, getting to his feet and jumping so that he could get his hands on his rambunctious son, who squirmed against his hold.  "Hey, how about you rest your eyes a little and take a nappy nap?"

 

Tony snorted in amusement.  He didn’t think he would ever get over Captain America adding toddler speak throughout his vernacular.  It sounded extra silly in Steve’s deep voice.  

 

"And when you wake up, Momma will be home," Steve promised.  Michael stopped squirming immediately and went lax in Steve's arms, pretending to sleep, complete with fake snores.  

 

"MOMMA?" he questioned immediately, opening up his eyes and looking around.

 

"Nice try, faker," Steve chuckled, cuddling the boy close again and patting at his back.  "C'mon, close those eyes and take a nappy nap."

 

"Sing a song," Michael demanded, sounding very tired indeed.

 

Tony was happy that Steve began to walk back into the house, leaving him outside on the very warm early spring day as he began to sing something that sounded suspiciously like  _ Beautiful Boy _ from the Beatles.

 

"Jesus Christ," Tony blew out in exasperation.  "Ridiculous and unfair how good a dad he is."

 

Tony was about to head inside to hear more of Steve singing the little boy to sleep, like the masochist that he was when a diverted shimmering light caught his eye.  That was high end refractory technology.  The kind of stuff that Nick Fury used to cloak his helicarriers in the sky.  And it was coming from something in the backyard.  Not one to be able to resist a good bit of high end science, Tony quickly made his way to the Lewis Family backyard, and he recognized the refracting technology made to look like planks on the crumbly little shed back behind the crab apple tree.

 

The light receded and the door to the shed opened, and Mrs. Rogers...or Mrs. Lewis, however they were doing the whole last name thing, walked out, looking determined and hopeful.

 

"Lewis," Tony pointed a finger at her, recognizing her immediately.  He had met her once after all, in passing at a Valentine's party at the New Avenger's facility, where he had tried to set up the hot little number in red with Steve Rogers himself.  She'd flipped Tony off and told him to take a long walk off of a short cliff.  "You're the boobs that Rogers was looking for."

 

"Idiot," Darcy sighed.  

 

"You are hella pregnant," Tony pointed to her stomach, where sure enough, there was a swell of a baby, high and proud and about six or seven months along.  "Jesus, you and Cap don't waste time, do you?"

  
  


"How's that wasting time working for you now that the end of the world is nigh?" Darcy asked with a droll little smirk.

 

"Not so well," Tony shrugged.  "Where were you?"

 

"Getting backup on Asgard," Darcy shrugged.  "I'm not sending my husband back out there unless I can be sure he's coming back to me."

 

“Smart girl,” Tony nodded.  “What are you doing with an idiot like Rogers?”

 

“The heart wants what it wants,” Darcy grinned, gap-toothed, sunny and bright, an expression that the two year old little boy had been throwing around recklessly for the past few hours.  Her smile disappeared immediately though and Darcy looked Tony up and down suspiciously.  “Where are the munchkins you were asked to bring, cheapskate?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, you should have more questions. I hope you have more questions. There are lots of things that haven't been revealed yet!
> 
> (And next chapter is----Michael Lewis, What are you? where we will get quite a few answers about this very advanced tiny tot)
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	3. Michael Lewis, What Are You?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Tuesday!
> 
> And so, here we are at Chapter Three. warning for flashbacks, childbirth, Loki being Odin and also being his usual dickish self, and more Tony confusion.

**Chapter Three: Michael Lewis, What Are You?**

 

* * *

 

**_Early Summer 2016, Granville Ohio_ **

 

* * *

 

"I'm so hungry."

 

Steve winced at the weakness in his fiancee's soft plea.  He felt terrible for Darcy's current state.  She was eight months pregnant and it hadn't been an easy eight months.  He had been missing for the first few months, but apparently it had been easy enough, according to Darcy.  She'd conferred with healers from Asgard, and their hypothesis was that the serum from the father was present in the child, easing morning sickness and making the mother feel stronger and healthier in that early time.

 

But as the baby grew, so did its needs.  Namely, the amount of food necessary to keep it growing at its rapid rate.  The obstetrician had been increasingly terrified at Darcy's measurements.  For a first baby, he was off the charts, size wise, and they were warned at every appointment that if the baby got any bigger, Darcy would surely have to have a c-section.  Steve hadn't known too much about the particulars of modern baby delivering, but his terrible worry had been slightly relieved when Thor had promised him to bring Darcy to Asgard to deliver the baby, where she would have access to care not yet even invented on Earth.

 

But that didn't help now.  It was a lazy Tuesday morning, Steve was working on one of his comics.  Three weeks into co-habitating, after the house had been completely bought and a small trust set up with the leftover money, he and Darcy had sat down to think about the logistics of how they would have money to live.  Steve had brought up the Stark Industries money he had, but had always been reluctant to touch.  

 

Thor had helped again, contracting Natasha to launder the money between his own profits from selling his likeness on Earth.  The money was deposited into Darcy's accounts monthly, and they would have been fine to live off of that alone, but Steve had also insisted on coming up with something to add to the household income.

 

Natasha had come through again, visiting one weekend, coming unannounced and revealing that she had swiped Steve's sketchbook full of his humorous, political cartoons that he doodled in rare moments.  She'd sold them under the name Steve Lewis, and they ran in twenty national papers across America.  

 

Darcy lay on her side on the couch, the remains of her second breakfast sitting on the coffee table.  Her arms were wrapped around her belly and she couldn't help the annoyed whine as her stomach gurgled.

 

"I love you kid, I really do, I love you so much," Darcy whispered.  "But momma can't eat anymore.  She can't.  You're giving her heartburn and dairy makes me want to rip out my intestines right now, and I just---I'm so sick of eating."

 

"Sweetheart, I'm so sorry," Steve sighed, abandoning his work and coming to kneel by the couch, his hand settling on the big firm swell of their child.  

 

No one could have predicted how the serum would influence a pregnancy.  Aside from the enhanced metabolism, Darcy was also incredibly emotional.  At the start of her seventh month, it was as if all the stereotypical symptoms and effects of pregnancy were enhanced, making her feel everything that much deeper.  Her usually dainty little feet were swelled up so badly that walking felt like a chore.  Her usually heavy breasts had grown obscenely large and were so sensitive that Steve didn't dare breathe on them now.  

 

Which was a damned shame, because Darcy needed his hands everywhere else on her but her breasts for a very good portion of every day and quite often in the middle of the night after a bathroom visit.  

 

"I just---I just want to be a good mom," Darcy burst into tears.  "But he wants a milkshake and if I eat a milkshake my stomach is going to do that gurgling thing that I hate so much and I---I can't..."

 

"How about one of the protein shakes?" Steve asked hopefully.

 

Darcy gagged in her mouth a little.

 

"Sorry," Steve apologized again.  "Hey, the Target two towns over probably still has that non dairy frozen yogurt you like, I could go and grab some, and bring it back and make you milkshakes with the chocolate almond milk."

 

He didn't add that he'd probably be adding a few scoops of the protein powder in order to satiate her hunger for a few extra hours.  It had been recommended by Natasha, of all people, who understood how to deal with an enhanced metabolism of her own.  But Darcy abhorred the protein shakes by themselves, so Steve and Natasha had taken to hiding it in as much as they could.

 

When baked into muffins or stuffed into milkshakes, it was undetectable and gave Darcy a few hours of extra peace.

 

"Yeah, okay," Darcy whispered, unwrapping her hands from her belly and reaching for her soon to be husband, pulling him close and kissing the daylights out of him, veering off the other emotional cliff.  "I love you, Steve."

 

"Oh, sweetheart, I love you too," Steve promised, kissing her back slow and sweet.

 

He was not surprised when her hands immediately went into his pants, working at the stirrings of his arousal quickly and efficiently.

 

"Darcy, you need a milkshake, remember?" Steve asked hopefully groaning as his eyelids fluttered closed. 

 

"I need you to rock my world," Darcy insisted.  "Milkshakes later."

 

"Alright," Steve agreed readily, knowing it was futile to argue.  He leaned forward and kissed her senseless, his hand going for his cellphone and sending out a group text with quite a few misspelled words, hoping one of the closest of his teammates would get the message and come running as they had each done in the past two months.  

 

'Help. frozen yogurt from Target. ASAP.'

  
  


Sam had answered the call less than two hours later, thankfully.  

 

* * *

 

**PRESENT DAY**

 

"Michael's a clinger when he's falling asleep, Steve won't be able to get away any time soon,” Darcy explained as she stuffed a granola bar into her mouth in lieu of munchkins.  

 

Pepper was on her way, and Tony knew she couldn't get their fast enough.  He knew there was some kind of old wive's tale about denying pregnant women food, and he had felt like an asshole when Darcy had just explained to him how the serum had affected her last time.

 

They seemed to have a better handle on it this time.  For one, Darcy hadn't hit that magic seven month mark.  She was only five months pregnant, to Tony's surprise.  

 

"You're as big as a damned house," Tony had blurted, and had the good grace to look immediately apologetic afterwards.

 

"I was the same with Michael," Darcy sighed.  "I mean, whatever your dad did with those Vita-rays was genius, for sure, but I kind of want to punch him in the kidney for it."

 

"I'd have given you half of my wealth if you could have done it," Tony shrugged.  

 

"You've probably noticed that Michael is hitting the milestones of toddlerhood a little early," Darcy sighed.

 

"I honestly, only know that kids eat, and poop and cry, I have no idea the order in which that happens," Tony smirked.

 

"Well, he IS advanced for his age," Darcy insisted, proud mom through and through.  "His body and brain run at optimal capacity.  He began walking at eight months, he began RUNNING at ten months.  He was reciting letters before he turned a year old."

 

"So---super baby," Tony nodded.

 

Darcy scowled and her hands went to the baby she was currently carrying, fingers protectively rubbing at skin.  

 

"You've been told that before," Tony wagered.  "Good thing we got Ross out of power, I'm sure he'd love to get his hands on Michael.  Or super baby two that's baking in the oven."

 

"Any one comes after my babies, they're going to wind up skewered and decorating my front lawn for Halloween," Darcy grumbled.

 

"Angry mama bear.  That's kind of hot," Tony blinked in astonishment.  "Who knew?  HEY!"

 

Tony's hand went to the back of his head where the slap had rattled his brains.  His angry expression turned soft and apologetic when he saw it was Pepper, standing there with a giant bag from Dunkin Donuts, presumably filled to the gills with the munchkins that Darcy had requested.  Steve was ambling down from the back porch, childless.  He smiled and waved at Pepper, like it wasn't the first time he had seen her in over two years.

 

"Steve, where's Michael?" Pepper asked hopefully.

 

"Sleeping, finally," Steve explained, he eagerly took the bag from Pepper and made a beeline for his wife, kissing her soft and sweet before pulling out one fifty count box of munchkins and popping it open in front of her face.  He sat next to her on the swing, attaching himself like velcro as Darcy popped a chocolate munchkin into her mouth.  He rubbed at her belly and kissed the side of her head before asking quietly, "How'd your visit go?"

 

"Good, no more actual facts prophecies this time, but that could be because Hela isn't wandering the halls of Asgard," Darcy sighed.  "Real Ass face Odin still marked this little girl for greatness though, the rat bastard.  Didn’t dispute the original prophecy at all.  Odin is a fucking booger nugget."

 

"You can't talk about the king of the nine realms like that," Steve smirked.  He sighed and tenderly stroked at the swell of his daughter in Darcy's belly.  "I really wish the Asgardians would stop marking our kids for greatness though."

 

"Uhm, explain?" Tony held up his hand.  He pointed at Pepper accusingly.  "You knew about Old Man Rogers and his idyllic suburban dad life?"

 

"Tony, Darcy is my close friend, of course I knew," Pepper sighed.  

 

"I text Pepper once a day at least," Darcy admitted before popping another munchkin in her mouth.

 

"Okay, I can deal with that, I understand, to a point," Tony shrugged.  And he did.  He and Pepper didn't tell each other everything.  And he understood that Pepper wouldn't want to tell him about all of Steve's happiness if Tony was still angry at him.  Which he wasn't, but still.  He had appeared to be angry at him and he himself didn't know how far the forgiveness had gone until he saw Steve again.  "Second question---your kids are marked for greatness?"

 

Steve wrinkled his nose and shrugged.  "Yeah.  It's---a whole ordeal that I've not really come to terms with yet, but---yeah."

 

* * *

 

**Asgard, Summer 2016**

 

"Your wife is a fearsome creature indeed.  She inspires feelings in my loins that I thought long dead and buried."

 

Steve groaned in annoyance as he looked to the doorway of the room that the Asgardian healers had assured him was private.  But that hadn't stopped all of Thor's cohorts, Odin and quite a few random Asgardians from walking by and making ridiculous comments.  Currently, it was Volstagg again, and he was staring in as Darcy breathed through another set of contractions.

 

She was three weeks shy of her due date, but their obstetrician had warned that there wasn't much ROOM left in Darcy's body for the baby to keep growing at the rate he had been growing at. The baby had started to noticeably drop a week ago, and Steve had not hesitated in packing Darcy in the car ten hours ago and rushing to the field that Thor had designated for pickup, shouting up at the heavens to Heimdall for assistance.  

 

"Steve!" Darcy was seriously out of breath and sounded tired, but all in all, was being very patient and sweet during the painful process.  

 

"Yes, sweetheart?" Steve wondered.

 

"Ice please?" Darcy reminded him of what he had gone out to retrieve before stopping in his tracks at Volstagg.

 

"I shall take him to the frozen water, Lady Darcy!  Continue to do your blessed work!" Volstagg insisted, placing a burly arm around Steve's shoulders and leading him from the room as the healers continued their work at making sure the baby would be able to fit on the way out of Darcy without hurting her or himself.

 

Volstagg guided Steve to a room at the end of the hall, which was filled with familiar faces.  Thor was telling as entertaining a tale as he could to the guests that had arrived a few hours ago.  Sam Wilson sat on his hands, looking cagey and nervous.  Natasha was a comforting presence sitting next to Wanda, who was fending off looks from Fandral and also trying not to let Darcy's muted pain infect her own susceptible mind.  

 

Jane glared at Steve from her place next to Sif and she demanded, "What is your gigantor baby doing to my best friend?"

 

"She is FEARSOME!" Volstagg reported.  "His wife's power knows no bounds.  She is surely a terror on the battlefield."

 

"She's not my wife yet," Steve said quietly.  Not for lack of want on his part.  But Darcy had insisted that they wait for both the baby to be born and for one of Steve's best men to make his way back to him.  

 

Natasha had promised them it wouldn't be too much longer.  

 

"But you shall wed her," Sif clarified.  "For I shall if you do not."

 

"I'm gonna wed her, no need to step up to the plate," Steve waved them off.  He looked around and asked, "Ice?"

 

"Here," Sam sprung to his feet, going to the corner and picking up a golden chalice full of the cold, frozen water.  "Apparently it's self filling."

 

"Also divine!" Thor added cheerfully.  "Only the best for my sister of the heart."

 

"Thanks," Steve nodded.  He heard a muffled shriek of pain and he bolted from the room, leaving all his friends sitting there, worrying and anxious.  

 

"Fuck this, fuck this, fucking shit, kid, I'm grounding you forever!" Darcy shouted as Steve ran back into the birthing room.  

 

"Drugs...drugs...do you have drugs for her pain?" Steve demanded of the closest healer.

 

"She's been given what Jane Foster has explained to us is an epidural," the healer promised.  "We are widening her pelvis to allow safe passage of the child.  It is what is causing her pain currently."

 

"You and your stupid giant Irish head!" Darcy pointed at Steve accusingly.  

 

"Sweetheart, I'm so sorry," Steve promised, going straight to her bedside and offering her a sliver of ice that she happily ate straight from his fingers.  "You're doing such a wonderful job.  Half of the Asgardians are going to want to give you command of a battalion soon."

 

"Mmmmmm," Darcy hummed, closing her eyes.  In the off moment when the healers weren't actively trying to get her ready to push a fully grown child out of her hoohaa, and in between contractions, she tried to gather her wits about her.  "If something happens to me---"

 

"Darce, no," Steve breathed, putting the chalice to the side and doing his best to wrap her up in his arms as she lay boneless on the bed.  "Don't talk that way."

 

"If something happens to me," Darcy forged ahead.  "Name him Michael, okay?  And---and ask for help when you need it."

 

"Sweetheart, I could never do it without you, so nothing is allowed to happen to you," Steve insisted, tears falling freely from the corners of his eyes.  "I can't.  I won't.  I need you so much.  I love you."

 

"Make sure he has fun, and make sure he knows how much I love him," Darcy sobbed out.  

 

"Please, please don't talk about such things," Steve begged.  "He'll know because you'll be there.  Darcy, I CAN'T without you.  I couldn't go on without you."

 

"For Michael you have to," Darcy insisted.  "Just---just make sure you---"

 

"What is all of this commotion?" a regal voice asked from the doorway.

 

Steve looked up with a heated glare, only to see Odin staring back at him with a smirk on his face.  A very odd looking, unnatural smirk, but it still incensed Steve and had him twitching and about two seconds from leaving Darcy's side and rushing for the Asgardian All Father.

 

"Go suck a bilgesnipe's tail, Odin!" Darcy barked out.  "I'm trying to give birth here."

 

"Indeed, the entire kingdom is in a tailspin about the birth of one Midgardian child," Odin rolled his eyes.

 

Steve's own eyes narrowed at the man's out of place expression.  

 

"Fuck you and your eyepatch and your bloated sense of self worth!" Darcy yelled.  

 

"Goats," Odin heaved a heavy sigh.

 

"Hey!" Steve's voice was heavy with warning as he began to gently move out from behind Darcy.

 

"Baby, no, it's okay, it's alright," Darcy soothed Steve like he was the one being affronted while in the throes of heavy, difficult labor.  "I'm gonna pop this kid out of my business, the Asgardian healers are gonna give me magic salve and goop  to make everything alright, and then I'm gonna track you down, you one eyed fuckface, and I'm gonna kick you so hard in the shins that you'll be praying to yourself for sweet relief!"

 

"I've already prayed to the Mother Frigga," Odin's out of place smirk was back at Darcy's absolutely treason worthy diatribe.  "You shall fare this birth well, in return for a favor."

 

"Fuck you!" Darcy whimpered out as another contraction hit hard.  She grabbed for Steve's hands and clenched with all her might, which was considerable.

 

Steve had never wanted Bucky present more than that moment, for the vibranium hand alone.  He tried to get Darcy to breathe properly by doing the lamaze breathing himself, and found that fifteen seconds in, she did start mimicking him, but had also let her left hand go from his and instead, moved it to between his legs, where she repeatedly ball tapped him as she worked through the painful contraction.

 

"What's the favor, ass-wad?" Darcy demanded breathlessly when the contraction passed.

 

"Your little billy goat is marked for greatness," Odin said calmly.  "It has been foretold that all your future offspring shall be the key in setting the universe right after the Mad King has his wicked way..."

 

"Foretold by who?" Steve asked, feeling a chill run down his spine.  Sam, Natasha and Thor had all given him reports regarding what they were learning about Infinity Stones.  He knew what Odin was referencing when he referenced the Mad King.

 

"It's all very hazy," Odin waved him off.  "Some minion of death has warned of the children of the Princess of Asgard and the Champion Hammer Bearer of Midgard---really, it might not even be your children, as she is not a rightful Princess of Asgard..."

 

"Thor gave me a tiara and everything," Darcy grumbled.

 

"Still, you will survive, you braying little goose," Odin shrugged.  "And some day, you shall watch the child fight for the good of all of us."

 

"Fuck you, dude, fuck you so hard, with a sideways safety cone...no lube," Darcy panted out as she reached out and grabbed for Steve again as another contraction hit fast and hard.  

 

The healers went into a flurry of activity and Steve could only hold his wife's one hand and also withstand every time she smacked him in the balls.  He didn't hold a lot of respect for Odin, but he did realize that the leader of Asgard was speaking the truth, and that Darcy believed him too.  She would get through the difficult birth.

 

But their unborn son being the savior of everything was just too much to digest.  They couldn't begin to do it.  Steve's eyes peered down the length of Darcy's body and his tears fell freely as he watched Darcy bear down and a bloody, messy bald head emerged from her body, quickly followed by one of the largest newborns Steve had ever seen.  The baby screamed indignantly as the healers made sure he could breathe.  He wriggled away from any slaps on his bottom.  He contented finally when he was placed against Darcy's bared breasts.

 

"Would you sever the cord, Captain?" the head healer offered him a slim, precise scalpel.  

 

Steve wiped messily at the tears on his face and sniffled before nodding and maneuvering around Darcy, who was floating as she stared down in wonder at her baby's face.  The cut to the umbilical cord had been quick, but the baby howled angrily and kicked his feet, clipping Steve in the side of the jaw and sending him flying to the floor.

 

"Holy Frigga," the head healer whispered.  "He is stronger than Thor was as a babe."

 

"Michael, Michael, motorcycle, no hitting, Daddy," Darcy urged quietly, her fingers tracing the infant's nose that refused to be small and squashed like most baby's.  Michael's was long and straight and handsome, just a miniature version of Steve's.  

 

"I'm okay," Steve mumbled, getting to his feet and handing the scalpel back to the healer, who immediately went to work on Darcy's afterbirth and the repairs and resetting needed to her lower half.  He went back to his place behind Darcy and crammed himself behind her, wrapping his arms around her and letting his finger run down his son's nose.  

 

Michael wrinkled his nose and lifted his head clear up and off of Darcy's bosom to get a better look at the rough finger who had touched him.  He couldn't see very much, or mentally process very much, so his head went back down again.

 

"That's not supposed to happen yet," Steve whispered.

 

"Pretty sure we have a special kind of little man on our hands," Darcy whispered back, guiding Michael's mouth to her nipple and smiling when he latched on.  She made a wincing sound when the baby suckled with sudden gusto.

 

"We'll bring healing salve," the head healer announced, knowing that feeding the babe would cause the mother pain afterwards.  She had wanted to cut the babe from the mother and avoid all of Darcy's previous pain as well, but had been told by Odin that the child of the prophecy would have to be forged in the most intense of pain.  

 

Under threat of death, the Healer had not even given Darcy pain relievers prior to the delivery, only a placebo.  She was impressed the little mother was still breathing. 

 

"Could you let everyone know that he's here?" Steve asked hopefully.  "Let them know it's all going to be okay."

 

Steve swallowed and spent the next ten minutes staring at Darcy's face and the baby as he continued to suckle and nurse.  After ten minutes, he helped Darcy to move the baby off of her left breast and the baby immediately burrowed his head towards her right breast, taking to it like a little expert.  Steve went for the pot of healing salve the nurses had delivered and rubbed it on his wife's abused nipple.

 

"Oh that's good," Darcy sighed.  "Cool, sweet relief."

 

"We'll have to make sure to bring lots home," Steve nodded.  "Maybe switch to formula as soon as we can."

 

"I'll deal for a year," Darcy said resolutely.  "Or at least until the first teeth come in."

 

"You're amazing," Steve whispered.

 

"I'm pretty badass," Darcy nodded.  

 

"Darcy, when the time comes---when the Mad King comes, I'm---I'll go back, I'm not letting my son be sacrificed for that," Steve said with quiet, steel-like resoluteness.  

 

"Odin didn't say sacrificed," Darcy whispered.  

 

"How can a baby save the universe?" Steve demanded.  "I'll protect him.  I'll protect you both."

 

"I love you," Darcy whispered, feeling drowsy suddenly, the pain medication finally kicking in.  

 

She fell asleep to the sound of the celebratory horns and bells, followed by something that sounded suspiciously like fireworks.  The sounds of their friends celebrating down the hall filtered in as well, and Michael finally pulled away from his nursing, for the moment full and content as his eyes blinked closed, something that almost looked like a smile pulling at his mouth.  Steve let his hand run over Michael's head.

 

"I'll keep you safe.  And so loved.  I promise."

  
  


* * *

 

**PRESENT DAY**

  
  


"He's not even two," Tony whispered, looking down at his hands.  

 

"When is Thanos' army supposed to get here?" Steve wondered.

 

"By July," Tony answered morosely.

 

"He'll be two by then," Darcy answered.

 

"That one in your oven isn't even finished baking yet. And He's a BABY, how is---how does that work?" Tony repeated. He looked to Pepper for assistance, but the woman was gobsmacked.  He understood the feeling.  He had spent the morning watching in amazement as Steve and Darcy's son did all sorts of things that he shouldn't be able to do at his age.  "How could the serum do so much for the kid?"

 

"Well---" Darcy hedged.  "I mean, the serum did a lot, but---"

 

"But?" Tony prodded.

 

"I got into a spot of trouble once, a really long time ago," Darcy admitted, giving Steve a sheepish sort of smile.  To his credit, he only gave her a kiss on the forehead, pulling her in tighter to his embrace.  

 

"A spot of trouble that gave you super eggs in your uterus?" Tony suggested.

 

"Sort of," Darcy admitted.  "I accidentally ate something I shouldn't have?"

 

"You've got to be shitting me," Tony rolled his eyes.  

 

"I didn't know until after the fact!" Darcy defended herself.  "Way, way after the fact."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Tony's confusion gets even higher!!!!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading this. Thank you for reading!!!
> 
> Can anyone guess what kind of political cartoons Steve writes? I'll give you a hint, they are definitely anti-fasist. And anti-white supremisist. And definitetly anti-alt right. Captain America doesn't have the patience for any Neo-Nazi bullshit.


	4. Bucky, When Did You Meet Darcy?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tuesday! Boom. 
> 
> So here's my thing when it comes to writing multichapter stories. I always go off the rails. I just keep thinking about all the fun stuff I want to write. But this---this story is getting out of hand, honestly.
> 
> (Song links within the chapter)

**Chapter Four: Bucky, When Did You Meet Darcy?**

* * *

 

**Christmas, 2016, Granville, Ohio**

  
  


"Michael, stop!" Darcy called out as she chased after her son, who they had made the terrible mistake of putting into one of those wheeled baby seats.  He was a speed demon, his little legs going at a cartoonish rate as he raced through the first floor of their house.  "Michael come back to mommy, please?!"

 

Michael only cackled in joy and continued to run all the way to the front door, slamming into it at a high speed, causing the entire house to shudder on its foundation.  His eyes lit up in delight at what he'd managed to accomplish and he immediately reversed his movements, going backwards in order to build up speed again so that he could knock the door down and go and find where Daddy was hiding.  

 

The little baby loved his momma to be sure, but Daddy was extra fun for playtime, mostly on account of how resilient he was and how little he yelled OUCH.  Michael didn't understand much at such a young age, but he didn't like when he made Momma say OUCH by accident.  Daddy was tougher, and therefore, the preferred playmate for rough housing.

 

"What on Earth is going on?" the front door opened and a stranger walked through the door.

 

Michael, six months old, cocked his head to the right for exactly two seconds before taking action.  His fast little feet began running and he went straight for the stranger in the house, tall and imposing and looking just as strong as Daddy, really.  There was a glint of metal on the man's hand, and Michael wouldn't let the shiny object distract him as he ran his baby walker full speed at the intruder, smacking the man with the plastic of his tiny vehicle in the shins, causing him to double over in pain.

 

Michael went in reverse again, quick as a bunny and went to run forwards again, intent this time on smacking the baby walker into the intruder's head.

 

"MICHAEL NO!" Darcy shouted, rushing towards the scene.

 

A metal hand reached out and stopped the walker from smacking against any heads and Bucky Barnes laughed long and hard, the sound echoing throughout the house.  Darcy stopped running after her son and took a big sigh of relief as Bucky reached into Michael's walker and unstrapped him, plucking him out of the seat.  She gave him a big, familiar smile, and Bucky honestly didn't know if anybody on the planet got so happy to see him as Darcy Lewis.

 

"You are so much like your father AND your mother," Bucky accused the little man who he had been eager to meet ever since Natalia had told him after his cool nap in Wakanda.

 

"Hey!" Darcy disputed.

 

"Are you or are you not the same gal who got taken by Hydra back in the day, that I rescued in 1996 when I was still the Winter Soldier?" Bucky questioned.

 

"Maybe," Darcy huffed out a sigh.  “And maybe, just  _ maybe _ I was the one to wake you up.”

 

"And at the time, you had nearly demolished the whole base, and then found yourself a snack," Bucky reminded her.

 

"It had been four days with no food!" Darcy defended herself.  "Of course I was hungry."

 

"And how'd that snack work out for you dollface?" Bucky questioned.

 

"Gave me gas," Darcy shrugged.

 

"And a little bit of super healing?" Bucky reminded her.

 

"Maybe a little," Darcy said petulantly, crossing her arms in front of her.  

 

"And the super fast brain processes?" Bucky nodded.  "And the  _good_ touch?"

 

"Not all the time!" Darcy defended herself.  

 

Michael didn't like the way this new stranger was making his mother sound, so he did the first thing that blipped into his developing brain that he could think of.  He smacked the stranger in the face as hard as he could.

 

"Jesus," Bucky exhaled, then laughed again, causing the baby to giggle in return.  He chucked the baby under his fat chin and said, "Michael, you are gonna cause your Uncle Buck so many new bruises, aren't you?"

 

"What are you DOING here?" Darcy demanded, softly.  It had been a very long time since she had seen Bucky.  And the last time he had spoken to her , he'd been more of the  _ man in the box  _ rather than the Bucky who was smiling at her with remembrance and fondness.

 

"Wilson wasn't cutting it alone in the best man category, so I had to be thawed out and rushed over to fill in," Bucky shrugged at the girl, who would probably always look a little like a girl to him, the same as she had been at seven as she was at twenty-seven.  "C'mon, I got your little super smart super baby.  You go and head on upstairs, Natalia and Barton are waiting to make you beautiful for your Christmas wedding."

 

* * *

 

**Present**

 

"You really did look so beautiful," Pepper smiled at Darcy wistfully.  She then turned to Steve and winked, "A very romantic gesture, Mr. Lewis."

 

"Ugh, so progressive with the taking her name thing," Tony sighed.  "Tony Potts.  Doesn't sound right."

 

"It also helps us stay a little hidden, Tony," Steve reminded him, as Darcy patted her hand against his thigh, first with five fingers, then with four, then with three and two and...

 

"HOLD ON! WAIT!" Tony stood up.  He pointed at Darcy, "You were kidnapped by Hydra as a kid?!?!"

 

"Is it really kidnapping when you weren't wanted by anyone in the first place?" Darcy pursed her lips thoughtfully.  "I was just a body that wouldn't be missed that they could experiment on.  They had taken the serum and tried to boil it down to single abilities."

 

"So they wouldn't wind up with super aggressive super soldiers anymore," Steve nodded.

 

"Jesus Christ," Tony sat down.  "Why wasn't it in your file?"

 

Darcy took a deep breath before shrugging, "Bucky."

 

"Fucking hell," Tony ran a hand down his face.  

 

"I reminded him of his little sister.  He'd just come out of cryo freeze and hadn't been wiped for too long, he'd just had interaction with Natasha...again.  And he found a feral child in a Hydra lab eating blue jello," Darcy shrugged.  "He snatched me up, took me out of the facility and led Hydra on a fifteen state chase until dropping me off---well with someone he could trust.  I never saw him again until the footage in DC from 2014."

 

"So, super soldier," Tony pointed at Steve, then pointed at Darcy and continued, "Plus super brain---"

 

"And the ability to calm other people with certain touches," Steve blurted out.

 

Tony's eyebrow did a slow motion lift upwards.

 

"Not that kind of touch you old pervert," Darcy whispered.

 

"You guys decided to create a baby together...brilliant," Tony shook his head in amazement.

 

"Well, Michael was a surprise," Darcy clarified.  She put her hands on the new baby bump and shrugged, "Mini-me here cooking was more a planned event."

 

Tony blinked at the pair of them, his face slowly revealing the horror.  

 

"It's nice to have a sibling close in age," Steve defended.  "Bucky and I are a year apart."

 

"Yeah, but that little baby," Tony pointed at Darcy's stomach, "is going to be alone if Odin's prophecy was true."

 

"Oh, that totally wasn't real Odin," Darcy patiently revealed.  "That was Loki dressed up as real Odin."

 

"What in the how now?" Tony gave a spastic little shake of his head.

 

"Makes the prophecy a little more believable actually," Darcy sighed.  "But that's a long way away.  I'm sure you and your teams of superheroes will be able to handle it this time around and beat back Thanos a few solar systems.  And then someday, when my babies have lived a full, long life, then they can step up to the plate and finish him off."

 

Tony could only stare at the ridiculously optimistic interpretation.  Pepper patted Tony's hand gently and gave a big genuine smile to all.  Darcy looked exhausted and Steve looked concerned, soothing his wife by rubbing his hand up and down her back.  

 

"Why don't Tony and I go out and grab a lot of takeout," Pepper suggested.  "We'll come back in a few hours and have dinner together.  I'd really like to see Michael up and about instead of in a picture or video."

 

"Uhm...if you're really going, you should bring a lot of food," Steve admitted.  

 

"We know, super baby number two makes Darcy super hungry," Tony rolled his eyes.

 

"Well, yeah, that and the rest of the team will probably be here in the next two hours..."

 

* * *

**1996**

 

"[Don't you evaaaaah be sad!](https://youtu.be/AREppyQf5uw)  Lean on me in times of baaad!"

 

A Hydra facility was no place for a child.  And yet, surveillance showed that there was a tiny girl, aged seven, wrapped up in a plain white hospital gown, long brown, greasy locks swaying as much as they could as she stood in front of a refrigerator, dancing around to the song playing on the sound system.  

 

"When the day comes and you're in doubt, in a river of trouble about to drown!" she sang at the top of her lungs, doing a little shimmy and clapping her hands in time to the music.  

 

The base had been abandoned some time ago, having been evacuated very quickly thanks to some problem with an Air Force woman with frightening abilities and hostile alien forces.  But there had been two things that the Hydra men that had flown had forgotten.

 

"Hold on! I'm Coming!" the child practically screamed the lyrics as she reached into the refrigerator and pulled out something blue and gelatinous in nature.  She crammed a handful in her mouth and continued to dance, unable to speak around her full mouth.

 

The Winter Soldier had been placed back into cryofreeze less than a month ago. The containment unit had been put into storage in the dead of night, and only two of the men on site knew it was there at all.  If he was needed, they would have shipped the containment unit out.  There was no reason for him to be awake.  He didn’t understand why he was awake and alone, except for the child.  The Winter Soldier had no way of knowing that the team of handlers that usually woke him up were either dead or trying to save Hydra from a  devastating attack.  And he had no idea what to do with the small girl who was singing, dancing and eating mysterious blue goo without a care in the world.

 

A flash of bright navy blue caught his eye and he spun around, glimpsing the overhead lighting reflecting off of a blond head of hair.  

 

The Winter Soldier blinked, wondering if it had been a trick of his mind.  He was due for some time in the chair, he knew it.  Without being wiped, he'd begin to remember.  Blond hair.  Red White and Blue.  

 

"HOLD ON I'M COMING!" the girl continued to sing.  She then belched louder than even her scream singing and swayed on her bare feet.  "Friend?  Friend please come back!"

 

The Winter Soldier stepped forward at that.  The sound of her plea had cut him to the core, pulling something from very long ago to the forefront of his brain.  He walked out of the surveillance room and went straight to the research laboratory that the girl was in, opening the door and entering silently. In the ninety seconds it had taken him to get to her, she was now on the floor, clutching at her stomach and sobbing pitifully.

 

She looked up, having heard him despite his nearly silent tread and held breath.  It was almost as if she could FEEL him there.

 

“The Man in the Box!” the child clapped her hands excitedly, the blue goo still smeared on her face.  “My friend said wake up the Man in the Box, so I pressed all the buttons and now you’re awake and we can go and get chicken nuggets, please?”

 

The Winter Soldier furrowed his brow, clearly confused.  

 

"Help please, Mister?" she begged, looking adorably dirty and hopeful.  “Chicken nuggets, please?”

 

The Winter Soldier swallowed, the motion hard and feeling out of place as his mouth slowly went from an unmoving straight line to being tilted at the corners.  He walked towards her and held out his left hand.

 

"Come along, little one.  I will help you."

* * *

 

**Present**

 

Tony made his way back into the front door of the Lewis household, his arms full of pizza boxes and plastic bags full of take-out containers.  He had argued with Pepper that with the amount of food he was purchasing for this impromptu gathering of the former and present Avengers, he should have been able to have it delivered.  She's given him a long suffering look and asked if it was wise to call attention to the living space of the toddler aged supposed savior of the world as they knew it.    

 

"PIZZIE! TONERS!  TONERS! MICAH WANT PIZZIE!"

 

The supposed savior of the world as they knew it looked up at him with excitement and glee before doing a silly little dance, rocking his hips side to side and waving his hands around.  He looked up at Tony with genuine excitement, a look that Tony had never seen on Steve's face, for sure.  That must have been all his mom.  His mom who was currently passed out on the ridiculously plush and oversized couch in the cozy looking living room, laying on her side, her right arm crushed underneath her and her left arm laying against the big belly she sported.  

 

She was snoring like a log, drooling to boot, and didn't even flinch when little Michael kept screeching about pizzie like it was the world's best thing ever invented.  Tony highly doubted the pizza was the best thing ever invented, for one, he had invented a new stinking ELEMENT.  

 

"Hey, enough about the pizza, dude," Tony said, his voice a little scolding, as if he had been talking to Dum-E after the robot had over zealously knocked something important over.  "You're gonna wake your mom up and she looks like she needs the sleep to build the other super kid."

 

"Nah!" Michael waved Tony's concerns off and spun around before stomping up and down the foyer hallway.  He sang at the top of his lungs, "[Sign See Dee Wee Ver I yours](https://youtu.be/inXC_lab-34)!  Oooh baby..."

 

Tony shrugged, not faulting the kid for his very ill pronounced 'Signed Sealed Delivered' rendition.  At the very least, he had great music tastes before the age of two.  But his stomping was now dancing and stomping combined, and his singing was loud enough to rouse the dead.

 

And still, Darcy snored on the couch.  

 

"Momma make a baby," Michael explained then closed his eyes as tight as he could and made snoring sounds.  "Momma a best momma."

 

"Yeah?" Tony laughed.  He shook his head in disbelief.  "I don't know kid, my mom was pretty awesome, you know, when she was in town."

 

"MY MOMMA A BEST MOMMA!" Michael screeched at the top of his lungs.  He was at the end of the hallway and honestly, looked like a tiny bull about to make the run down a long alleyway in Spain.  He pounded the big rocks he called feet against the ground and huffed out angry breaths from his nose.

 

Tony had the good grace to look truly frightened as he began his super speed dash, fists at the ready to decimate all of Tony's GOOD bits.  Just when the death to his manhood via super powered toddler muscles was inevitable, a blur of silver went in front of Tony, grabbing the little boy off his feet and hoisting him up in the air.

 

"Michael, Michael Motorcycle, what in the hell you doin', huh kid?  It's not nice to use your muscles for bad stuff like hurting innocent delivery boys, remember? No ouchies."

 

Tony snorted as more people entered the hallway from the front door.  Bags were being liberated from his hands and pizza boxes were plucked out of his arms by the meandering members of ex-Team Cap.  Sam Wilson, Wanda Maximoff, Clint Barton and even whats his name tiny guy all walked in behind Tony's 'savior'.  But Tony had seen each and every one of them in the last two years.

 

"Sorries Unca Buck Buck," Michael cooed at the man holding him up high in the air with a metal hand spanning the boy's entire torso.

 

Bucky Barnes gave him a reproachful little look.

 

"We don't hurt people who can't take the ouchies, remember?" Bucky prompted.

 

"Sorries," Michael said, truly remorseful.  His bottom lip went full pouting and he turned remorseful, gigantic blue eyes onto Tony.  "Sorries Toners."

 

"S'alright," Tony said quietly.

 

The rest of Team Cap quickly exited the foyer and headed past Bucky, who held the toddler in such a way that his face could get kissed by everyone who walked past him to the kitchen with the food Tony had provided.  The little boy giggled with delight with every kiss and shouted a cheerful HEYA to everyone of the visitors.  

 

Tony didn't have to turn around to realize that the front door was closed by Natasha Romanoff.  He looked out of the corner of his eye and still didn't see her, and he didn't know if she was doing it to keep a tactical advantage in case things went south  or just to annoy him.  He hadn't seen her face in nearly two years though, since she had left the hospital that Rhodey was in.  

 

"Can you quit it?" Tony demanded, turning to stare at Natasha.

 

Who was blonde.

 

"Uhm," Tony held up his hand as if asking a question reluctantly.  Natasha simply arched a carefully sculpted brow at him.

 

"We're alright Red," Bucky said softly, taking Michael and kissing him smack dab on the mouth before TOSSING him over Tony's head at Natasha.  

 

"Red?" Tony contended.

 

"She'll always be Red to me," Bucky gave her the barest hint of a smirk.

 

"Heya Reds," Michael sing songed to Natasha.  "Gib us a kiss Reds."

 

"You little monster," Natasha's greeting was a soft, adoring thing and she placed four quick kisses all over Michael's face.  "Come along, little monster.  Let's see if Tony got the good pizza."

 

Natasha happily accepted the cuddle that Michael bestowed upon her, holding his large toddler body close.  She walked by Tony with no hesitation, but paused next to Bucky, giving him a questioning look, to which he gave a fond little nod.  Bucky then looked at the ground, his chest moving up and down with each deep breath, as if he were preparing for something.

 

"I hate you," Tony said quickly, the words like the bullet from a gun.

 

"I'd think less of you if you didn't," Bucky answered back, taking another heaving breath before looking up to meet Tony's eyes.  "I hate myself, you know, just every other breath I take."

 

Tony looked to the left rather than meet Bucky's truthful, earnest gaze.  Darcy was still sleeping like a log, not even moving a bit with all the loud foot traffic that had just moved through her home.  His eyes drifted to the ridiculous roundness of her stomach.  

 

"You rescued her."

 

It wasn't a question.  It was a statement.  But Bucky could read into its meaning well enough.

 

Why had he found his humanity to be able to rescue a small, possibly deranged child?  Why had he been able to stop himself from walking away and leaving her to her own devices?  Why hadn't he been able to scrape two memory synapses together and stop himself from killing Howard and Maria Stark just a few years earlier than he had rescued Darcy from isolation and starvation and death in some hidden and desolate Hydra base?

 

"Yeah," Bucky nodded, taking slow and steady and completely silent steps into the living room, happy to not have to ask Tony to follow.  They stood there in silence for at least three minutes.  There was sound coming from the kitchen.  Someone received a text message and the men went traipsing out of the kitchen back into the foyer, intent on helping Pepper as she arrived with even more food to feed the masses.  

 

Steve came back in with at least twenty pounds of Chinese takeout and brought them into the living room, sitting them on the coffee table in front of his wife.  He smiled down at her as she started to rouse from her sleep thanks to the all pervasive smell of bourbon chicken.  He reached into a bag and opened one of the containers, the pungent smell of pork dumplings wafting through the air.

 

Darcy moaned in her sleep.

 

"Jesus," Tony laughed just as Bucky snorted with his own laughter.  Tony took a step back, looking around the room with wild and uncertain eyes.  The mirth ha come from nowhere.  "What the hell?"

 

"Touch her hand," Bucky advised quietly.  

 

Tony didn't want to touch her hand.  He already felt like he had gone back in time.  When he was seventeen, and had come home for Thanksgiving break, delighted to find out that his mother didn't have to attend any formal dinners, and instead had foolishly tried to make her own bird.  Howard had fallen on the floor laughing at the charred piece of poultry that had found its way to the table.  

 

It had been one of those picture perfect moments in life, when Howard had not been stressed out or vacant or downright belligerent.  His mother hadn't been too busy, she'd been right there.  He had been doing well in school, and had even met Rhodey, his first and best friend he would ever have.  It had been perfect and he was feeling that feeling.  Calm, stress free, HAPPINESS.  And there was the gentle undercurrent of low level panic, because he didn't know WHY he was feeling this way and he didn't really care, because like hell if he would ever want it to stop.

 

"S'okay, Tony.  Just---you'll understand," Steve encouraged, wafting the dumplings under his rousing wife's nose.

 

Tony nodded and let his fingertips brush against the hand Darcy had on the swell of her stomach.

 

"Holy shit."

 

* * *

 

**1996**

 

The Child was clearly magic.

 

Bucky Barnes stared down at the little slip of a thing snoring like a log  on the passenger seat of the jeep he had managed to liberate from the Hydra base.  The original goal had been to take the child along with him to the next Hydra base to report for conditioning and rest.  The revised goal became dropping the child off at the nearest hospital, and then go to the next nearest Hydra base to report for conditioning and rest.  

 

The goal changed.  Roughly ten times.  The longer he was in the car with her, marveling at how she pressed buttons on radio stations that had previously never been used to play music, finding one station that seemed to play rhythm and blues and soul music from the 1960's, singing along to every one of them pretty poorly, the longer he watched her in her flimsy hospital gown, a bright smile on a pale face, the more the goal changed.

 

And the more his mood lifted.  And it wasn't just due to the fact that she began talking about all the food she would very much need as soon as humanly possible.  Even when she had fallen asleep after singing herself hoarse to Aretha Franklin, Bucky's mood had kept lifting.

 

He hadn't remembered ever feeling so happy at first, and didn't know what to do.

 

And then suddenly he DID remember feeling so happy, and it had been due to a red head who had played music similar to what the little girl had been playing and singing and dancing to.  

 

The more his mood lifted, the quicker he was able to remember.

 

He reached out and pushed hair out of the little girl's face, his fingertips brushing against her temple.  And suddenly, he remembered everything.

 

He turned the car on the highway he had been driving on immediately, uncaring that he'd managed to get the Jeep up on two wheels.  

 

He was Bucky Barnes.  He didn't have to report to Hydra.  He didn't need to be reconditioned.  The only thing he had to do was get him and the magic child to wherever his Natalia was.

  
  


He pulled his hand away to get a better handle of the wheel and suddenly everything was gone, the euphoria and the clear memories rushed from his brain and only that happy mood remained.  

 

"Odd," he mumbled.

 

"Friend?" the child whispered, she popped up on her knees on the seat, quick as lightning and looked around curiously, stringy, greasy hair flying around her face.  "My friend?"

 

"I don't know who your friend is," the Soldier said softly.

 

"He wears a mask like this like it's Halloween," she replied masking her face with her hands in the shape of a domino mask.  "And he sings songs with me."

 

"Was he Hydra?" the question was confused, eyes squinting at the child staring back at him with sea blue eyes that took up a good portion of her little face.

 

"He is my friend," she shrugged.  "He will come back and we will sing."

 

The Soldier doubted that would be happening.  But he did know that the child had to have sustenance and something other than a hospital gown to wear.  He continued driving in the direction he had turned, even though he didn't remember quite why.

 

* * *

 

**Present**

 

"God," Tony actually laughed as he felt the thrilling euphoria rush through him for a brief moment before he pulled his hand away.  "Jesus!"

  
  


"Yeah," Bucky nodded.  

 

"Rogers, you old dog, you married a walking talking anti-depressant!" Tony accused.

 

"She's not---it's not, that's not what it is," Steve disputed, waving the potstickers once more to gently bring his wife to the land of the living.  "It only works like that on---on people that really need it, and not forever."

 

"Are you calling me mental?" Tony rolled his eyes.

 

"A little," Steve shrugged.  "Yeah, when I initially met Darcy, touching her the first time was---it was amazing.  But eventually, it lost its effect."

 

"Food?" Darcy called out, sitting up straight on the couch immediately from a dead sleep.  Brown curls that had been falling out of her low, messy bun whipped around her face as she looked around.  "Food?"

 

"Yes, sweetheart, we have food.  C'mon, the team is here."

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DO YOU SEE WHAT I WAS SAYING????
> 
> Well, anyone who visits my tumblr will know that I played a game where people gave me random story titles and I wrote a synopsis of what I would write. And someone awesome (littleplebe CHECK HER AWESOMENESS OUT DUDE!), sent me the title "Man in the Box". And I had already had this chapter written, but I knew I wanted to do a prequel based off of Bucky and Darcy's adventures in 1996. So yeah, be on the lookout for "Man in the Box" Hopefully it will be out once this fic is done. : )
> 
> Thank you for reading and putting up with my inability to write things that aren't meandering and confusing.


	5. Thanos, How You Doin;?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright. I admit, I couldn't do it in five chapters.
> 
> ...this chapter is stupid long, and has two things that I would like to have happen in Infnity Wars.
> 
> Warning for non-major to this story character sort of alluded deaths off screen (spoiler, it's Vision). Also---alien dismemberment? Boy...this story took a turn.

**Chapter Five: Thanos, How You Doin'?**

 

* * *

 

"That's just not happening.  There's no way.  It's not happening, so just---just drop it!"

 

Tony watched with wide, surprised eyes, a slice of pizza in his mouth, practically hanging down against his chin.  The source of conflict had not come from where he had expected it to come from: namely himself and Barnes.  The happy uplifting pill that was Darcy Rogers-Lewis (Tony refused not to put Steve's name in there somewhere), was giving him the good lift still and Tony's therapy seemed to have taken hold against all odds.  

 

He didn't want to kill Barnes anymore.  He hadn't wanted to eat dinner with him, but he supposed if he could rationalize it as a working dinner, it wasn't so bad.  

 

"You aren't the boss of me!" Darcy roared out, brandishing a chicken wing bone in her hand menacingly at the one person that Tony had not thought would be a problem.

 

"I'm the boss of EVERYONE HERE," Natasha gestured wildly with her arms to the whole kitchen.

 

"What in the hell is happening?" Tony whispered.

 

"Reds get so mad," Michael giggled before shoving another handful of carefully cut pizza squares into his mouth.  His demand was muffled, but still loud, "ANOTHA!"  

 

"Here you go pal," Bucky said softly, lifting up the boy off of his chair and sitting down with him in his lap.  He placed another plate full of cut up pizza in front of the boy and smiled fondly as the boy grabbed handfuls of the cut up pizza in his mighty little fists.   Bucky chuckled and leaned forward, placing a kiss on top of the boy's golden head.

 

Tony wrinkled his nose and got a pinch to his thigh from Pepper. 

 

"I did not spend the last twenty-years keeping you safe and alive for you to be collateral damage under the big toe of a megalomaniac space monster!" Natasha screamed.

 

"Yeah, you did a great job of it too, I mean, New Mexico?  London?  Where were you then?" Darcy countered.  "I kept MYSELF alive, and I'll do it again.  I'm going to New York with Steve, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

 

"Oh, there's nothing?  There's NOTHING?" Natasha asked incredulously, breathing hard, her face flushed with anger.

 

Tony watched in fascination, not quite understanding how this was happening.  Natasha NEVER lost her cool.  Never.  Even when Wanda had originally zapped them back in 2015, Natasha had still retained her cool.  But just ten minutes into dinner, she was screaming and shouting at Darcy, and Darcy was screaming and shouting right back, like the stereotypical mom and teenager you would see on a dramatic, awful tv show.  

 

Everyone seemed normalized to this, except for Tony and Pepper.  

 

"Darcy---she spent a lot of time being watched over by Natalia," Bucky said in a soft voice, to Tony and Pepper only.  "They are very close.  But Natalia is overprotective and Darcy is headstrong, so we have this."

 

"Is Darcy doing the opposite of what she does to other people?" Tony voiced his hypothesis.

 

"The girl doesn't usually have anger like this," Bucky admitted.  "She is most open to letting it out around Steve or Natalia, and Natalia is most likely to feeling the effect of it."

 

"But she can make other people feel anger," Tony clarified, looking down at Michael, who was very nearly done with his pizza....again.  

 

"She doesn't do it on purpose," Bucky could see where Tony was going with his questioning.

 

"But she has the ability to push whatever emotions she wants on other people---has she practiced?  Can---"

 

"Stop it!" Natasha whirled away from Darcy and glared at Tony.  "You are not WEAPONIZING the children."

 

"Hey, I didn't say anything about that," Tony defended himself, albeit halfheartedly.  "And besides, I'm not weaponizing them, according to Asgardian prophecy, they're already weaponized."

 

"Micah Micah Motorcyca no give ouchies," Michael said with the soft, careful tone of his father, staring down at his chubby little hands.  

 

"That's right pal, we don't give ouchies to other people," Bucky encouraged.  "Good people that aren't trying to hurt us don't deserve ouchies."  

 

"But big aliens can totally have them," Tony piped in.  Pepper took a plastic fork and went to jam it into his thigh.  He jumped away from her and shook his head, "No ouchies, don't want to set a bad example for the adorable super kid."

 

Nearly a dozen cellphones went off simultaneously, causing all mostly friendly teasing to cease.  Tony looked down at his phone and swallowed nervously.

 

"Won't have to worry about coming to New York, Lewis.  We're---this is happening.  And it's happening now."

 

* * *

 

Darcy watched as her husband, her friends, her FAMILY left one by one.  Tony and Pepper rushed off first, followed by Scott and Barton.  Wanda was next to leave with Sam.  Natasha and Bucky lingered as long as they could, but would have to get the quinjet ready to transport Steve to where Thanos was threatening to land in the next twelve hours: smack dab in the birthplace of humanity, a dusty desert landscape of Africa.  There wouldn't be an opportunity to go to New York, so the argument of Darcy packing up and heading there with Michael was moot.

 

"Stay safe, little pill," Natasha murmured in her ear as she clutched her as tight as Darcy's rotund belly would allow.  

 

"You too?" Darcy questioned.

 

Natasha pulled away and gave her a knowing smile.  It was sad and full of knowing.  The Black Widow had survived and lasted through so much throughout her life.  The early childhood of loneliness and darkness and starvation.  The Red Room.  The Cold War.  Losing Bucky half a dozen times and having her mind scrubbed clean of him each time.  And that was all before Disco.  

 

But there was something in her expression, so hard to hide from Darcy of all people, that was a knowledge that she didn't have high hopes of coming back from this battle with Thanos.

 

"You're going to be fine," Darcy promised.  "Everyone is going to be FINE."

 

Natasha took a deep breath as the confidence that Darcy projected from that statement hit her like a shot of adrenaline.  She gave Darcy a rueful smile and said, "You can't force us to be victorious through victorious feelings."

 

"You once told me I could do anything I wanted so long as I didn't get caught," Darcy reminded her.  She reached out and hugged Natasha again, a woman who she owed so much.  Darcy let up on the regulators and mental inhibitors that NATASHA had taught her so many years ago and pressed as much love and care as she could towards the woman.  "I love you, and I'll see you soon."

 

"Yeah," Natasha nodded, before pulling away and looking to baby Michael, who was clinging to his mother's legs and looking up in confusion as all of the fun grownups that he loved so dearly said goodbye.  "Hello little monster."

 

"Hiya Reds, give us a kiss," Michael demanded.

 

Darcy grinned as Natasha picked up the overgrown toddler and kissed every available inch of his face.  The little, proud mother turned and her entire field of vision was taken up by a broad chest, one she happily fell into as she wrapped her arms around him.

 

"Keep an eye out for my guy?" Darcy whispered to Bucky as he held her tight.

 

"You promise to keep outta trouble, and I'll do my best," Bucky bargained.

 

"I promise," Darcy nodded.

 

There was a sound of splintering wood coming from the backyard and Darcy didn't need to see the breaking of wood to know it was her shed that housed the portal they used to get to Asgard.  She heard the thunder and knew that Thor had returned to Midgard in order to protect it.  And from the sound of the war cries, he'd brought a few friends.

 

"Loki is missing.  Again," Thor called out as he entered the house.  "Godson Michael of the Motorcycles!  You have grown!"

 

"THOR!" Michael shouted, jumping from Natasha's embrace and rushing towards Thor.  He jumped up four feet in the air, and Thor's capable hands met him there, lifting him up and off the ground and swinging him in the air.  The little boy began chattering in a language that Darcy didn't understand and Thor yammered back just as quickly, engaging in a lively conversation in the true Asgardian tongue.

 

"Stark was here?" Thor questioned of the adults in the room after Michael had explained to him in Asgardian about TONERS.  

 

"Yeah, he let out already, we'll catch up," Steve explained as he came into the room, wearing a suit he hadn't had to wear in nearly two years.  

 

The years had not been kind to it.  Namely because Darcy had washed it and somehow had managed to dye it darker.  Patches were torn off when Michael had requested them for his own play costumes.  But it was still as bulletproof as it could be, so that would have to be enough for now.

 

Steve ruffled his son's hair as Thor perched him on his shoulder before heading straight for Darcy.  He elbowed Bucky out of the way, wrapping his wife up in a tight embrace.  

  
  


"I love you," he whispered against her sweet smelling hair.  

 

"I love you, too," Darcy nodded against his chest.  "Be careful?"

 

"Yeah," he breathed out, pulling away and placing both hands on Darcy's stomach.  "Make sure she knows how much I love her."

 

The tears in Darcy's eyes welled in response and she could feel a cold dread dripping down her spine.  She knew Steve.  She knew her husband better than anyone, even Bucky didn't understand every little thing that lived and breathed inside of Steve's thoughts and emotions.  She knew him. 

 

He was a man who had crashed a plane into the Arctic to save the world.  He had unreservedly put his life on the line to defend the planet from aliens.  He'd been willing to die on a floating rock in order to protect humanity.

 

But to protect his children and his wife?  Steve would do anything.  Including sacrifice himself willingly.

 

Darcy went numb with the overwhelming feeling of it all, a coping technique taught to her by Natasha when she was still a small child.  It was a cold, wet blanket put over her feelings so she didn't push them into other people.  She watched through a gauzy veil as Steve kissed their son goodbye, explaining calmly that Daddy had to help Uncle BuckBuck and Reds and Toners with bad guys now.  And he would be back as soon as he possibly could.  And he loved him so much and would always love him, no matter what.

 

Darcy felt one last kiss against her lips and kissed back with as much love and determination as she could as she waved them off.  

 

"Momma?" Michael questioned.  

 

"Yes baby?" Darcy nodded, shaking the veil and dampers off.  

 

"Micah Micah Motorcyca wanna help Daddy," the little boy said thoughtfully.  "Bang bang bad guys."

 

"No baby, Momma's gonna get you a bowl of cheesers and a sippy full of juice," Darcy patted the boy's golden head.  She took a deep, strong breath, feeling the baby twist and dance in her tight confines.  "And then you can go watch youtube videos while Momma gets a couple of things in order."

 

* * *

 

Loki, son of Odin and Frigga, adopted, but still a member of the royal family of Asgard, had been looking for a way out of this fate for quite some time.  He approached Thanos with the Tesseract, knowing that he had to once more be loyal and subservient in order to assure his survival.

 

"My King," Loki bowed his head and held the tesseract up to the Mad King.  He swallowed as Thanos took the Tesseract in his palm and crushed it quickly, revealing the space stone.  

 

It went into the gauntlet on the Mad King's hand, joining its brethren that Thanos had liberated, the Aether was now a solid stone, along with Power stone.  Large purple fingers flexed and a low hum of satisfaction came from Thanos' gut.  

 

"You will not wait for the other stones, my King?" Loki asked, taking a few smooth steps away from Thanos.

 

"They will have to be brought to me, Time and the Mind," Thanos grinned.  He looked down at Loki discerningly, obviously not trustful of the man, but needing him just the same.  "Where is Heimdall, Trickster?"

 

"In hiding," Loki admitted easily.  "He fears the prophecy shall be made true."

 

"Prophecy?  Is Asgard spouting prophecies again?" Thanos laughed.  

 

"Yes, that the bearers of three stones shall be destroyed, and in the ashes the Mad King will laugh and wreak havoc on all the worlds," Loki recited in his dulcet tones despite his current audience.  

 

Thanos too large grin became dipped in maniacal menace.

 

Loki's green eyes danced with sudden mirth as he revealed in a soft and amused tone,

 

"And the children of the Princess of Asgard and the Hammer bearer of Midgard will be the savior of all, crushing the Mad King under the weight of his own power."

 

A purple fist was wrapped around Loki, threatening to squeeze the life out of him in the blink of an eye.  But green eyes still danced with mirth, despite the precarious situation their owner had found himself in.  He was comfortable in his position.  He held information that Thanos could not very well live without.

 

Loki didn't know how an unborn child and a powerful small toddler would accomplish it, but he did have faith in the prophecies' words.

  
  


"Tell me---who are these children and their parents?"

 

* * *

 

"En route, we'll be there in enough time to set up," Natasha promised T'Challa over the communication lines they'd opened as she piloted the jet with Avengers, new and old towards Africa.  She saw something approaching on the radar and nodded.  "Iron Man incoming, back away from the bay door."

 

Thor moved his warriors to the side physically and everyone else grabbed on tight as she opened the door and allowed Iron Man to fly onboard.  

 

The jet was roomier than quinjets had been in the past, thanks to the scientific and technological wonders of Wakanda, it was also faster.  Tony flipped his Iron Man mask up and looked around with the air of someone who was admiring work that was superior to his own, but definitely didn't want to admit it.

 

Every Avenger, past and present was on the jet, and the conversation was even more stilted now that Tony was there as well.  He sighed after about a minute of silence and shrugged his robotic shoulders smoothly.  

 

"Look, I know, it's weird," Tony rolled his eyes.  "We've all said mean things about each other in the past two years."

 

"I've not said anything mean about anyone," Peter Parker disputed from a corner of the jet next to Sam Wilson, who had been teasing him mercilessly prior to Tony's arrival.  Peter shrugged and gave a little half smile, "I kind of think everyone here is pretty awesome."

 

"No one asked you, spiderling, and also, who brought you here?" Tony demanded.

 

"Happy said it was important," Peter shrugged.  

 

"This is an all hands on deck situation," Steve was the one to say aloud.  "The kids got moves."

 

"He's SEVENTEEN," Tony sighed.  

 

"Which means he was FIFTEEN when you brought him to Germany," Rhodey reminded Tony.

 

"Okay, let's not all pile on Tony, let's all just skip the hard parts and focus on saving the Earth so Rogers' adorable super kid doesn't have to do it for us," Tony deflected.

 

"What?" Rhodey looked to Steve.

 

"Ha, see, I'm not the only one!"

 

"Incoming!" Clint called out and the quinjet was rocked with turbulence.  "What the fuck was that?  What is that?  It came out of nowhere."

 

"It's small," Natasha furrowed her brow as she tried to maneuver the cameras to see what was currently on the bottom of their jet, causing it to stop moving and actually turn in direction.  

 

"It's a young woman," Vision announced as he looked at the floor of the plane.  

 

"What do you mean it's a---"

 

Tony's question was cut off as a flash of light appeared in front of the jet, orange and green in nature, a pretty sort of show, but when it receded, a human was flying in the air.

 

A broad, muscular, tall sort of human, with blond hair on top of his head a domino mask over his eyes and a bright navy  blue uniform stretched tightly across his body, a single white star on his chest.  He lifted up a round shield, colored with very familiar red, white and blue.  He held up the shield just as a burst of purple energy drifted down from the sky, defending Earth, but refracting a single beam of the energy towards the plane.

 

* * *

 

"Ian, listen to me, I don't care that you have a date, you get your ass to Hell's Kitchen and you set up that portal, I'm sending you Jane's instructions," Darcy barked into the phone, far more stern than she had ever been with her former intern and very short lived paramour.  "Your date isn't going to mean anything if we get overrun by megalomaniac aliens!"

 

Darcy hung up the phone and took the tablet she used to communicate with Jane, who was on the other side of the world, working with her on getting portals up all over the world where Darcy KNEW heroic and helpful people were.  They weren't super, not all of them.  But they could help.

 

Because if the first line of defense, the Avengers and the Mutants and the Fantastic Four somehow failed, then Darcy was damned well going to make sure that the second line of defense was there.  

 

They all very well may die at Thanos' hands by the end of the day, but they would go down fighting, kicking and screaming.  This was THEIR planet, with their imperfect superheroes and their families and their lives.  They were going to take a stand and it didn't matter what happened so long as they did their best to do what was right.

 

Children would sign songs about them hundreds of years from now.  

 

"What do you mean you know where all the old alien weapons are?" Darcy questioned into another cell phone.  "Bring them.  BRING THEM.  Find a way. No dude, I promise you won't get arrested.  Cause I'm Mrs. Fucking Captain America, that's why!"

 

"Momma, need more cheesers!" Michael announced, holding up the empty economy sized container that Darcy had given to him an hour ago.  

 

"Oh crap, we're out of cheesers," Darcy whispered as she lifted Michael up off of the floor and cuddled him close.  "No Ned, not you.  I need to---"

 

Darcy shrieked as she was enveloped in a blue light, so unlike the warm comfort of the Bi-frost.  She could feel herself being ripped out of her space, every molecule.  Michael clung as tight as possible, and whimpered out in the pain.

 

When she opened her eyes after the light receded, she was standing in the middle of a desert, hot air blowing wildly around her.  

 

"Holy shit," she breathed, looking down at her son for injury.  

 

"Wanna make a cassle!" Michael reached for the sand at their feet.

 

"No, not now," Darcy whispered to him as she looked to the sky, watching as something descended very rapidly.  The spacecraft seemed to dissolve and before she knew it, a gigantic purple being was standing right in front of her, sneering down at her as he held up a gloved hand.  

 

She swallowed nervously as Michael glared up at the newcomer with true menace on his little adorable face.

 

"Hey man, nice glove.  Liberace called, he wants you to stop douching up his fabulousness," Darcy said as loud as she could physically stand it, anything to get that disgusting wrinkly thing's eyes off of her son.

 

The Bad California Raisin sneered down at her.

 

"The Asgardians really aren't doing too well with their prophecies as of late," Grape Ape's unfortunate cousin chuckled.  "This is what will defeat me?"

 

"Nope," Darcy shook her head.  

 

At least fifty portals began to glow all within a hundred yards of Darcy and the wrinkled bad shark guy from Lilo and Stitch.  The second line of defense was going to have to be the first.

 

"Sweet Christmas."

 

Darcy turned to see the people that had been transported to the deserts of Africa to help.  It was a quartet of completely normal people, one of them with a blindfold over his face.

 

"Holy shit, you've GOT to be kidding me," a dark haired woman muttered from the closest portal.  "Nope, never mind, take us back to Hell's Kitchen."

 

"C'mon Jones, let's do this," a tall, imposing looking man cracked his neck, despite the sudden sheen of nervous sweat shining on his bald head.  "Whatever the hell this is."

* * *

 

"What in the hell is going on?" Steve barked out, peering out of the quinjet windows to see the black darkness of space.  

 

"We're in the atmosphere still, but we're not going to last too long," Tony answered as he pushed Barton physically out of his chair and went to work.  "Vis, is the girl still out there?"

 

"Yes, although she is attempting to open the bay doors," Vision said calmly.

 

"Does she know we'll die if she does that?" Sam asked diplomatically.

 

A shimmery gray light appeared dead center in the jet and then slowly the outline of a girl appeared.  She was tall, just as tall as Steve as he stood in front of it, and she was a muscular, powerful thing.  Steve couldn't make out her features, but he could see the outline of a ponytail, high up on the crown of her head and a lot of hair cascading from that ponytail.

 

"Uhm---hey, uhm, we're gonna get you guys back down to Earth, just---lickety split, really," the girl announced in a sweet, high pitched voice.  "Just be calm and uh, hold on please?"

 

"Who are you?" Steve wondered.

 

"Oh, no dude, I can't say that," the girl insisted before the lights started to fade.

 

"Is everyone seeing what I'm seeing?" Clint wondered.

 

They all looked in the direction he was staring at, while Steve still looked at the place the girl's apparition had just been.  Sure enough, in the horizon over the massive continent of Africa, they watched a large spacecraft drift down while another chased it from afar.  

 

Their quinjet started to descend as well, back through the murky atmosphere and towards Earth at a sedate, safe pace.  Natasha worked quickly to try to get her communication equipment back up with Tony's insistent interference.  

 

"Romanoff?  Do you hear me?" Fury's voice crackled.  "We've got a problem."

 

"What now?" Natasha asked desperately, as Tony brought up the visuals that the helicarrier was getting.

 

A space ship crash landed in the desert with aliens and humanoids alike making their way out.  A group of about a hundred humans already in the sand.  T'Challa's army too far off.

 

And in the middle of everything, a large purple beast...the Mad King.  Thanos.  

 

And Darcy Lewis being suspended in mid-air in a beam of light, little Michael cuddled close to her as she cried out in pain.

 

Steve lurched forward, his whole face ashen and gray and his hands automatically  went for the shield that had been at Sam's feet.  

 

"Get us down there.  NOW."

 

* * *

 

"What in the hell is he doing?!?!" Peter Quill demanded as he watched Thanos hold a woman and a baby in a beam of hazy red light, obviously causing her pain as she cried out.  

 

"What he does best," Gamora said grimly.  "Hurting the innocent."

 

More ships were appearing out of nowhere, Chitauri, Skrull and a host of other nefarious forces that had sworn fealty to Thanos.  They were quickly reaching Earth's surface and engaging with the meager forces of humans on the ground.  Quill pulled out his guns and shook his head as the woman screamed again.

 

"We have to help her."

  
  


The fight began to break out on all sides, alien attacking human, and the Guardians of the Galaxy could get no closer to helping the helpless woman and child at the mercy of Thanos.  Allies began appearing quickly, but the scene was still one of the haphazard chaos.  

 

"If I could just get to above the---gunfire and---magic fire---and literal fire," Quill's face was the picture of distracted concentration as he tried to figure out the best way to move about the battlefield.

 

"I could help," a man came forward.

 

"Bitching goatee, dude," Quill nodded at the newcomer, who had literally appeared from nothing.  "Also---your cape is pretty rad."

 

"Thank you?" the stranger nodded.  He pushed energy from his hands creating a staircase of sorts.  "This should support you."

 

Quill's eyes lit up and he nodded slowly as he muttered, "Cooooooooooool."

 

* * *

 

Thanos grinned as the metal of his glove heated, another of the powerful stones was close by, the others could feel it.  He paused his slow, sweet torture of those that would seek to destroy him, letting the expectant mother and the boy fall to the ground. The mother was in a heap, but still curled protectively around the boy who seemed to be better off.  

 

He surveyed the pitiful excuse for defense that the Midgardians had put together.  Where was the giant green beast?  The Asgardian God?  The pitiful and blessedly fortunate humans who has somehow managed to thwart an invasion from the Chitauri?  

 

"No matter," Thanos flicked a lazy hand and the sorcerer was pulled into the air towards him, causing Ego's child to fall from the steps created in the sky into the floor of hungry beasts below him.  The Mad King focused on the sorcerer, who was attempting to do his best to do harm with his powers.  Thanos sneered down at him, clearly unaffected.   "You have something of mine."

 

"Give him the cape," Darcy muttered from the ground as she pulled herself into a sitting position, Michael clinging to her, silently crying into her neck.  "Seriously, did no one watch The Incredibles?"

 

"No Capes, momma," Michael agreed.

 

Darcy kissed his head and looked around for a way out, wondering if the current battle between Thanos and the Cookie Crisp Wizard would last long enough for her to regroup.  She could feel pain ripping through every nerve ending in her body and although she knew she would take just about anything for her kids, she was seriously worried about the baby she was currently carrying.

 

Just behind Thanos, to his left side was Loki.  He was staring down at Darcy with a truly neutral smirk on his face, observing her, impressed by her ability to take a metaphorical punch, but not too concerned about her wellbeing.  She flipped him off and didn't bother scolding Michael when he did the same thing.

 

And then she concentrated.  She did what the Black Widow had taught her to do when Darcy was a small child, she took all the fear, the worry, the PAIN, and she pushed it away from her, as forcefully and quickly as she could, and aimed it straight at Loki.  His green eyes widened when it hit, and tears welled at the sides before he fell to his knees with an anguished wail.

 

"Fuck off, Loki," Darcy breathed before another scream, louder and more pained than Loki's rang in her ears.  She grimaced when she saw the cookie crisp wizard fall to the ground and another gem floated towards the truly awful glove of unspeakable doom.  That couldn't be good.  She looked around as the fight waged on.  The forces she had gathered weren't doing too badly, more and more started to arrive, and a lot of them seemed to be mutants and inhumans.  

 

She looked to the sky, as she always had ever since Thor had ridden off of Earth on his rainbow bridge.  

 

"Help...please?" she whispered.

 

She hadn't expected much as Thanos turned towards her again, barely sparing a glance to Loki, who was writhing in pain and tormented tears still.  But then an orange light appeared  in front of her and the most beautiful being stood in front of her, bedraggled and unkempt, but still, a beacon of hope.

 

"Heimdall," Loki choked out in disbelief.  "Flee, you fool!"

 

"Silence," Thanos waved his hand and a spark of green hit causing Loki to fly through the air encased in a green orb.  When he landed, he wasn't quite Loki.  Thanos laughed, "The time stone works quite well, don't you think, Loki?"

 

The infant Loki, covered in his former clothing couldn't do much more than wail in response.  Thanos laughed in response and turned back to Heimdall, who looked determined.

 

"Allow peace for this little mother and her children, and I will give you what you want," Heimdall offered, looking resolute.

 

The infant Loki squealed even louder in protest.

 

Another beam of light came down on the opposite side of the battlefield, hundreds of yards away, but when Darcy squinted, she could see that it was Odin, whose old ass immediately entered the fray.

  
  


"Agreed, Gatekeeper," Thanos said quickly, reaching out his gloved hand to Heimdall, who began glowing orange.

 

The stone appeared to reabsorb from Heimdall's chest, coming out fully formed, glittering and beautiful, Darcy looked at it in wonder.  The source of Heimdall's power, his ability to see every soul in the nine realms.  The Soul stone quickly went to the gauntlet on Thanos' hand, joining the rest, leaving only one empty spot.  

 

Heimdall fell to his knees, looking like a mortal (hellafine) man.  He nodded at Darcy with a reassuring, small smile before crawling towards the infant Loki, taking the boy and wrapping him in the cape the larger Loki had worn.  Michael kissed his mother's cheek before turning around quickly and darting towards the giant purple man who had hurt them so much earlier.  He picked up stones off of the ground and began hurling them at the alien.

 

"YOU SO SO BAD!" Michael screamed.  "You get all the ouchies! BAD BAD!"

 

Thanos laughed and waved his hand, pulling the boy up and off the ground.  Darcy screamed and scrambled to her feet to try and get to her son, but another wave of energy hit her and she was suspended in the air again, writhing in pain.

 

"Thanos!" Heimdall shouted.

 

"Gatekeeper hold your tongue or you and the infant shall die next," Thanos ordered.  "Do you really think I would risk my life in such a way?"

 

Michael threw the last stone he had in his hand against the force field encasing him, the stone miraculously broke through, but its trajectory veered from its original destination of Thanos' left eye and instead fell and hit the glove, the power stone glinting and sparking minutely at the blow.

  
  


"You think to destroy me tiny human?" Thanos was near gleeful as he stared at the child.

 

"You get so many ouchies!" Michael screeched at him willfully.  "You wait for daddy, he give all the ouchies!"

 

* * *

 

Steve was gripping his hands in his hair, watching in horror and helplessness as they kept their slow descent towards Africa.  Darcy and Michael had had a brief reprieve from the pain, but now seemed to be Thanos sole focus once again.  He felt a metal hand on his shoulder, but couldn't look away from the screen showing his wife and child being tortured.

 

"Could use a plan, pal," Bucky murmured.

 

"Kill him," Steve whispered back.

 

They watched as Michael threw a stone and it fell onto the glove.

 

"Captain Rogers," Vision blinked in concern at the screen.  He looked to Tony for assistance, "The glove is not invulnerable."

 

"Friday, give me calculations on how hard it would be to rip that thing from his hand," Tony demanded.  "And turn up every blaster on the Iron Legion to be capable of it.  Vis?  You wanna head topside with me?"

 

"I'll go too," Wanda insisted, standing.  

 

"We're all gonna go soon," Clint promised.  "Mostly because we're going to be crashing once that thing hits us over there."

 

Indeed, an alien missile was headed towards them at high speed and Wanda's hands lit up with red energy, going towards the hatch of the jet and ready to shield them.  Clint knew what her aim was and opened the hatch about three feet, causing a powerful cold wind to blow into the jet as Wanda pushed her protective shield out.  

 

Natasha swore in Russian when a tall, imposing young woman drifted in through the hatch, dressed all in a dark blood red tactical suit, brown hair piled high on top of her head in a ponytail.  She walked through Wanda's energy forcefield like it was nothing and then stood next to the astonished former Avenger and looked around, bright blue eyes lighting up in recognition at what she saw.  

 

She gave an enthusiastic little wave and grinned big, Peter Parker in particular, inspired a bright blush coloring pale, ivory cheeks.  

 

Bucky tapped Steve on the shoulder, who was still intent on watching the screen, no matter what came their way.

 

"Stevie?" Bucky whispered.

 

"She can't last much longer, we have to...we need to get down there," Steve whispered.

 

"Rogers," Natasha whispered.  "We'll get there."

 

"How do you know?" Steve demanded.

 

"Because that's Darcy Junior," Bucky whispered.

 

Steve spun around to look at the woman who had appeared as an apparition earlier.  And although she was built with vitarays and super serum in mind, every line of her body suggesting power and strength, Darcy’s face was replicated perfectly. The grin on her face was sunny and bright and full of mirth.

 

And it was gap-toothed and lovely.

  
  


"---Alice?" Steve breathed out.

 

"Uhm---I can neither confirm or deny that's my name," the girl answered back.  "I usually go by Allstar?"

 

"Like the song?" Scott wrinkled his nose and shook his head.  "Terrible."

 

"Alice," Steve repeated, looking hopeful for the first time in hours.  It was the name he and Darcy had picked out for their little girl.  She was Darcy's doppleganger, if Darcy had ever been put into the vitaRay machine.  

 

"Everyone hold on to something," the girl who would not be called Alice demanded, not bothering to do the same herself.  "We're gonna take the express route down to party town, suckers."

 

Bucky chuckled even as they got hit, the blow being slightly absorbed by Wanda's energy.  They began falling rapidly towards the Earth, right onto the edges of the battlefield.

 

* * *

 

Darcy was too tired to scream anymore.  She hovered somewhere between awake and passed out, watching as the cavalry arrived.  The fliers came first, the Iron Legion.  Thor.  Wanda. Sam.  Vision.

 

She wanted to scream.  Vision, above all else, should be kept away from this monster.  He had the final piece.  If Thanos was this powerful now, she would hate to see how powerful he became with all of the infinity stones.  Michael seemed impressed with the amount of people who could fly.   He wished he could fly.  Flying seemed to be pretty important.

 

He turned and wiggled in the forcefield that kept him suspended and saw way off in the distance that his Daddy was coming as fast as he could, using a shield and bouncing it off of people, tossing it to Unca Buck Buck and Aunt Reds.  Michael had the feeling that he should be helping somehow, but he was stuck in a floaty bubble.

 

"HEY!  HEY YOU!  TONERS!" Michael yelled.  "LEMME OUT!"

 

'Toners' had just been a member of the Iron Legion zipping around Thanos like annoying gnats.  But Thor HAD heard him and took Mjolnir to the bubble that contained Michael and then Darcy, allowing them to fall to the ground again.

 

Michael wasted no time in scrambling to his feet.  Sure, what the mean purple guy had done had hurt, but no more than when Michael would accidentally fall from the first floor onto the ground, and he shook it off before rushing at the big purple guy, picking up something that looked like a stick, but was actually more alien tooth than stick, along the way.

 

"Michael get down here!" Darcy urged.

 

But the toddler wouldn't listen, clamoring up and up and up the big bad purple monster, until he was gripping at a belt and making a big jump to the bad guy's massive purple forearm.  

 

He had to hold on really tight and cringed when he heard Aunt Wanda scream.  Aunt Wanda was the prettiest lady in all the world, as far as Michael was concerned, and he would often steal kisses right against her mouth that she'd laugh about and pinch his cheeks.  He felt a rush go through as a red wave of energy went through him, doing nothing to move the purple giant that Michael was clinging onto.  

 

He watched as the last empty hole in the gauntlet got filled up with a pretty stone.  He scrabbled towards the pretty lights and held his stick up above his head before bringing it down and stabbing it right into the skin above the guantlet.

 

Thanos snarled and flicked his arm at the annoying prick of pain.  The boy went flying, and thankfully Uncle Sam was able to get him and take him back to his momma.

 

"Baby, baby, are you alright?" Darcy whispered.

 

"M'okay, Momma, lemme go, I gotta give ouchies!" Michael insisted, though he was trembling like a leaf.

 

They were encased in a powerful bubble, this one coming directly from all the stones in the completed gauntlet and mother and child were pulled off the ground again.  Darcy screamed and Michael whimpered as so much more than pain went through them.  It was as if each of the stones was trying to outdo the other.  Darcy felt as if all of her insides were being torn apart piece by piece.  She couldn't tell whether she was on her feet or in space.  She felt everything and everyone and it was AWFUL.  

 

Michael quickly succumbed to unconsciousness and very suddenly he went from toddler in her arms into a full grown man for a brief flickering moment and Darcy stared at him in wonderment.

 

"My friend," she whispered, before Michael was little again, cuddling close to his mother as she screamed out once more.

 

* * *

 

 

Steve was running faster than he had ever run before, ignoring for the first time the suffering around him as humans, enhanced and mutants alike did their best to combat the aliens invading their planet.  He let the shield fly, taking out what he could, but he didn't stop or slow, running the miles of desert sand to get to his wife and child.  

 

Bucky and Natasha weren't too far behind.  But keeping pace for him, step for step, was the young women who wouldn't admit out loud who she was, even though Steve knew for sure exactly who she was.  

 

"You're good with it," Steve huffed out as he pushed his body to the brink.  

 

Alice had just caught the shield off of one of his rebounds before letting it fly again, clearing a particularly ugly Chitauri from their path.

 

"Yeah, well, you know, I don't get as much hands on time as I'd like, SOMEONE is always grabbing it first," Alice shrugged.  "But he's a heavy sleeper so sometimes I can sneak it out of his room and get a good hour in."

 

Steve nodded, focused on clearing the path and getting to Darcy and Michael's side.  He squinted in the distance in disbelief as a bright white light materialized in between Darcy and Thanos and Alice scoffed.

 

"Show off, I can burn just as bright," she insisted.  And as if to prove her point, she pushed her hands in front of her, forming two powerful fists.  Two balls of energy, swirled with purple and red emanated from her skin and then flew forward, taking out a quarter mile stretch of enemies, leaving the humans who had been fighting them unscathed and looking around in confusion.  

 

"How?" Steve gasped out as they ran, getting close enough to hear Darcy's screams.

 

"Uh---you'll see?  Real soon, I think."

 

* * *

 

The light receded in front of Darcy's eyes and she could see below her stood a young man in a bright blue suit, a black domino mask over his eyes and a shock of blond hair on top of his head.  He wielded a shield just like his father, and he looked exactly as he had back in 1995 and 1996 when Darcy had encountered him in her youth.

 

"My friend..."

 

The man turned and gave her a familiar smile, full of sunshine and innate goodness.

 

"Hi Momma," he nodded.  "Give us a few minutes, okay?  We'll be done soon."

  
  


"Wait what?" Tony demanded as he flew by, his visor flipping up as he stared at the new arrival and the little boy who was now sleeping almost peacefully in his mother’s arms.

 

"Is this something else I didn't know about?  Surprise Tony, I have a kid with Lewis. Surprise Tony, the kid is gonna save the world.  Surprise Tony, Lewis has super powers like Dr. Feelgood and is the metaphorical daughter of Bucky fucking Barnes and the Black Damned Widow---”

 

“I’m more like a little sister than a daughter, I think,” Darcy argued, then clamped her mouth shut at Tony’s annoyed, withering look. 

 

“And now it’s,  Surprise, our kids are Time fucking travelers without the big blue police box!"  Tony finished.

 

"No," Darcy shook her head slowly, her eyes darting between the baby Michael passed out in her arms to the grown up Michael staring down a giant purple alien with all the fierce protectiveness and righteousness he had inherited from Steve.  "This is new.  Or old.  I mean, I didn't know."

 

"Sucks to be in the dark, doesn't it?" Tony smirked at her before a large purple fist batted at the left side of him, knocking him far and high up in the air before the repulsors kicked in and started to stop him.

 

"Michael?" Darcy asked hopefully.

 

"I just gotta finish this up Momma, it'll all be alright, promise," the older Michael smiled at her sweetly before turning to Thanos.

  
  


The Mad King was cackling at the sight of the boy in front of him, Thanos held up his bejeweled gauntlet and let all of the infinity gems loose.  Darcy screamed and tried to scramble to her feet to do something to protect her son, despite the fact that she held his sleeping form against her.  But before she could take a step, the beams of light coming from the gauntlet wrapped around the older Michael and slowly sank into his skin, causing him to burn bright, but not doing any other damage.

 

"I'm sorry, WHAT?!" Tony screamed incredulously from the half mile distance Thanos had batted him.  “What did you  _ accidentally  _ eat to make that happen, Lewis?”

 

"Darcy, down!" Steve shouted from about a city block away.  "THOR!"

 

"Oh, it's happening, now?" Michael questioned, looking around with a shit eating smirk he had inherited half from his father and half from his Aunt Natasha.  He winked at the Black Widow as she ran onto the scene and began immediately combatting with aliens that were trying to get to Darcy and baby Michael.  "Hiya Reds."

 

"No time to give kisses," the young woman running with Steve chastised Michael.  She outpaced Steve and joined Michael, floating in the air, glaring fiercely at Thanos.

 

Darcy put a hand over her mouth.  That was her glare. She used it on people who stole parking spaces she had been waiting for in shopping centres and just very sparingly on Natasha when she was being extra, overly protective.  And that one time on Steve when he had denied her early Sunday morning nookie because he had waken Michael up on purpose to take him to some sort of bird watching event.  

 

"Alice?" Darcy ventured.

 

"Seriously?!?  I'm like---a covert superhero, and not even born yet!" Alice grumbled peevishly.  "How can everyone already know who I am?!"

 

Thanos was snarling and began moving towards Darcy, intent on stopping this foolishness before it could get out of hand, but the mysterious teenagers floating in front of him were having none of that and both of them began blurs of color, red and blue as they sped around the Mad Titan in circles in the air.  Steve bounded onto the scene and leapt, his right arm going up just in time to have Mjolnir's handle meet his palm.

 

Thanos raged at the obnoxious flies floating around him, and the two young ones were soon joined by the Iron one again, as well as quite a few others who had made it past the swaths of those loyal to him to attempt to attack him.  He roared with the indignity of it and attempted to use his all powerful gauntlet again, only to have the effects of the stones he had spent so long in obtaining be absorbed by the children.

  
  


"Daddy!" Alice called out as she stopped abruptly, just as Thor had summoned the lightning without the hammer and had caused a shock to go through Thanos' left side.  

 

Michael joined her and they each gripped a finger of Thanos in powerful hands, while Tony quickly put everything he could into his repulsors in order to steady the entire arm.  

 

Steve stared down at the mad creature's wrist and saw something that looked like a stick poking out of the purple skin.  He didn't hesitate bringing the hammer down swiftly and smacking against the alien substance with all of his strength.  

 

Thanos howled in renewed anger and pain the strike had nearly cleaved his hand from his body.  Steve flew through the air, tossing the hammer up in the air where it zoomed back towards Thor.  The hand with the gauntlet was nearly halfway off of the Mad Titan's body, and Alice pulled with all her might while Michael quickly took his father's place, bringing his own shield down hard at the place where the hand and the arm were connected.

 

In the flash of light, that came from the severed hand, it was difficult to see what was happening.  Bucky was closest and would have a problem understanding it and articulating it when asked.  The hand severed, there was a flash of blinding, brilliant light, Michael and Alice disappeared from view and the gauntlet flew end over end across the battlefield, crashing on the ground in front of Darcy and baby Michael.

 

Thor wasted no time in stepping forward and smashing the gauntlet, and with it, all of the stones that would have caused them so much trouble.

 

The infinity gems scattered in the wind and when the light receded, the spectrum of glittering dust that was still more powerful than anything in the universe seemed to float sentiently through the air, landing on two things.

 

Michael Lewis.  And the protruding belly of Darcy Lewis.

 

"Oh shit," Darcy whispered.  She looked around as she felt her body lift up, floating effortlessly, the same as Michael’s.  Steve was by her side, in an instant, reaching out and holding on to both of their feet to keep them tethered.  Her children...from the future, had stopped Thanos.  And in doing so had imbued their past selves with the power that had allowed them to stop Thanos.  If Darcy wasn’t feeling so damned good from the after effects of the stones, she might have gotten a headache.  She half giggled, half sighed and looked down at Steve, who was smiling up at her softly.

 

"Well, that explains a few things."

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the two things I need to happen in Infinity war---or Avengers 4 when they destroy Thanos. I NEED Steve to wield the hammer, and I'd like Bucky, Nat and Sam to be anchoring the shield on the wrist of Thanos and he can chop that purple hammy fist off.
> 
> TWO...I really want all the cameos. They don't have to speak, they don't have to do anything. But I want to see the humans of the MCU, Darcy and Ian and Jane and Erik and the Wombats and Sharon and Maria and the Defenders and Phil and everyone, just taking a stand. They're not the big names, but they are badass. 
> 
> Okay. This was a lot of information to digest. I'm so sorry this story went off the rails. Like, I"m really sorry. You don't need to tell me though, I already know. 
> 
> But thanks for reading and letting me play.


	6. Hey Jerks, Why Didn't I Get to Go?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry to have left this hanging without this last little bit. that was cruel of me.

**Chapter Six: Hey Jerks, Why Didn't I Get to Go?**

 

* * *

  
  


Alice never quite got used to time travel.  Uncle Toners always joked that he was going to build her a big blue box with a toilet in it, but he still hadn't figured out how exactly to have the box go back in time and space with her.  So when her feet landed 18 years in the future, at precisely the same time as her older brother, she swayed a bit then gagged, the breakfast Momma had made them eat that morning, oatmeal and sausage and little tiny fluffy egg and spinach and bacon souffles and super special smoothies (protein powder still sucked eighteen years in the future and had to be hidden), threatened to come up.  

 

A trash can was put in front of her face immediately but she shook her head, concentrating on making sure she didn't let the motion sickness overtake her.  She finally managed to unscrew her eyeballs and Dr. Parker was standing in front of her, big, beautiful brown eyes crinkling slightly as he gave her an encouraging smile.

 

Alice sighed.  She loved Peter Parker.  And after seeing him as an adorable seventeen year old, looking so earnest and young and cute, she didn't think her crush would ever break.  Her face turned bright red as he said something to her, but she couldn't quite hear him, the space and time travel that the stones’ powers allowed her to do still had its after effects, but with all the practice they had managed to put in in the last year, she knew it didn't last too long.

 

"---guess it worked, I mean, we're all still standing, great job Alice!" Dr. Parker said proudly, clapping a friendly hand on her shoulder before he moved to Michael, who never seemed to get motion sick at their blips back in time, just disoriented and really loud and excitable for hours afterwards.  It was why he was better at it and why he got to go back and see Momma when she was real little.  

 

"Alice!" her name was boomed loud and terrifying as she was lifted off her feet.  "It went well then?"

 

"Yeah, Hal---put me down!" Alice demanded.  

 

Haldor, meaning literally the rock of Thor, Fosterson did put her down and smiled at her in that way that he had inherited from his father, big, bright and downright incandescent.  Alice was a very tall woman, easily hitting the six foot mark, and she didn't usually have to look up at someone, even Michael was nearly eye to eye with her.  But seventeen year old Hal was even taller than Thor, amazingly enough, and she peered up at him.

 

"You were supposed to distract my mother and your mother today," Alice reminded him.

 

His irrepressible smile fell.  A snort erupted from just behind Hal, and a seventeen year old young man with jet black hair and emerald green eyes had a sinful smirk on his face.  Alice narrowed her eyes at Hal’s ‘ _ uncle _ ’.  He had been a staple in their lives, growing up with his guardian Heimdall.  Everyone made a big stink about Loki growing up right this time, but Alice wasn’t quite so sure.  Loki was still plenty mischievous and seemed to like annoying her an awful lot.

 

"I wanted to make sure you were alright," Hal’s voice was a soft thing, and he stared down at her with too large hazel eyes that he had inherited from his mother.  And then his expression turned gooey and worshipful as it was wont to do when he looked at her.

 

Alice turned pink and ran away, as one did when your childhood best friend, someone who you had waddled around in diapers with, started looking  _ gooey _ .  She ran right over to the big conference room table, where all of their work had been centered.

 

They had kept most adults out of it, but Dr. Parker, who had been their personal tutor of sorts over the last five years, knowing more than anyone about what it was like to become a hero at such a young age.  Powers of the universe had said the fewer times the affected adults could meddle, the better it would be for the overall outcome.  But there was one adult who wouldn't be left out.

 

"Heya Reds, give us a kiss," Michael cooed at his 'aunt' as she flicked her hand over the latest security reports.  She smirked up at him and pressed her lips on his temple before going back to work.  "You're still pretty as a picture, just like the last time I saw you."

 

"Two minutes ago," Alice reminded him as Hal brought over her water bottle.  She smiled up at him gratefully, and his face got gooey again, so she bounded energetically over to the largest hologram panel in the room.  "Hey kiddo, how's business?"

 

A pair of broad shoulders went up and down and a grumbled voice came out, words indistinguishable because they were muttered and also because the octave of the tone kept changing.  

 

"Noah Lewis," Alice scolded.  "Use your big boy words, like you're supposed to."

 

"I don't get why I didn't get to go with," the boy grumbled, his voice cracking on the word with.  At thirteen, he already came up to Alice's shoulder, and he looked up at her with big, wounded blue eyes that were only slightly veiled by the unruly brown curls that fell down his forehead.  He blew one of the curls up and off his face, only to have it float back down to its resting place once more.  "I'm super too."

 

"Uhm, cause of this?" Michael wagered, holding up his hand and letting different colored, sparkling lights drift off of his finger tips.

 

"Still," Noah, the current youngest of the Rogers-Lewis family grumbled.  He hated being treated like a baby.  He was the baby in all things.  The youngest of all the other children, Barton, and Foster and Wilson and Lewis alike.   He was even younger than Scrappy Stark, the fifteen year old puppy that was more bionic than natural at this point, but was Tony and Pepper's pride and joy.   He hated that he was too young to have fun like his older super special siblings.

 

"C'mon, I want to go start a Lewis cuddle pile," Alice ordered, gripping her younger brother's shoulder and leading him away from their war room.  

 

He grumbled the whole time, until he saw that his parents were already starting their cuddle pile in the common room in the upstate New York facility.  They split their time ever since Michael had turned twelve, spending half the year in New York and half the year in Ohio. And it wasn't uncommon to walk into a room and see the sight before them.  

 

Uncle Bucky was laid out on his belly on the couch, and their Momma was curled up on his feet with her head in their Dad's lap.  Usually Aunt Natasha was apart of the cuddle pile, and when Jane or Thor was in town, they too got added.  Sam wouldn't touch the cuddle pile if Bucky was involved, but he had been known to perch nearby.  

 

Alice ran towards the couch and jumped right on her Uncle Bucky's back, cracking something that had been out of place.

 

"Alice, Momma's sleeping, don't be a siren of a girl," Steve warned with a fond smile.  "How'd the mission go?"

 

"You KNOW how the mission went, Dad," Michael insisted.  "You like---lived it."

 

"Hmmm," Steve hummed, his hand running through Darcy's curls lazily.  

  
  


Natasha came in then, pizza boxes in hand, followed by Sam, who had bags of takeout.  Steve reached for one of the containers eagerly and popped open the spiciest wings they could legally order, and held it in front of his wife's face, flapping the lid to make the smell hit her fast.

 

"Food?" Darcy mumbled, lifting her head up, looking around with bleary eyes. "Food?"

 

"Yes, sweetheart, food," Steve said gently, urging her to sit up among the tangles of limbs on the couch.  

 

"Some things never change," Tony scoffed as he walked in.  He and Darcy had a stare down.  And his eyes critically surveyed the scene.  He liked to snark at cuddle piles from afar, never wanting to actually have to touch anyone, but definitely enjoyed watching them in fascination.  He liked to see where platonic limbs ended up.  At the moment, Steve's hand rested on his wife's abdomen, rubbing absently.  Tony heaved a heavy sigh and shook his head.  "Are you KIDDING me?"

 

"Shut it, Stark.  Where are my munchkins?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have writing kinks, obviously. I love writing kids, duh. But I also LOOOOOOOOOOOVE writing future stuff with future characters and whatnot. I could have probably gone on and on and on about the head canons I have regarding Avengers generation 2.0. (Loki/Alice/Hal oh my god my brain ran away from me). 
> 
> Anywho, keep an eye out in the next few weeks for the prequel to this "Man in the Box", where we will look at Bucky and Darcy's adventure in the 90's. (I'll figure out a way to cram some shieldshock in there too dammit). 
> 
> THANK YOU FOR THE SUPPORT!

**Author's Note:**

> what am I thinking writing all of these stories??? I have a problem, really.
> 
> I hope that you enjoy reading this. I really quite enjoy little Michael, and up next we're going to get some flashbacks and the story of Darcy and Steve and baby Michael.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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